Gita Honwana Welch is currently an independent consultant on International Development. Between 2011 and 2013 she was director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Service Centre for West and Central Africa, based in Dakar, Senegal. Prior to this, she served

 Onalenna Selolwane is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Botswana. She is one of the editors of the African Sociological Review and has published in areas of African governance, politics, gender and agrarian studies.Dr Selolwane from

Professor Chinyamata Chipeta was born on August 30 1939 in Ndembela village, Rumphi District in Malawi. He is the Executive Director of the Southern African Institute for Economic Research and was formerly a professor of Economics at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

Dr. Gilbert Mudenda was born in November 1949 at Macha Mission Hospital in Choma District, Zambia. He started school in 1956 and went to upper primary in 1959. He later on attended secondary school at Choma Secondary School in 1964. Dr. Mudenda

  Ibbo Mandaza is a Zimbabwean academic, author and publisher. He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil) in Political Economy from the University of York in England (1979) and taught at the Universities of Botswana, Zambia, Dar re Salaam and Zimbabwe (part-time).