Meet the team.
From disability activists, to policy experts, our team is made up of talented, passionate professionals.
Meet our Trustees.
A K Dube, Honorary President.
Andrew Kudakwashe (AK) Dube, Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Disability Alliance (ADA), brings 30 years’ experience of designing, managing, evaluating and monitoring development and disability programmes with international and grassroots community organisations.
AK’s previous roles include working as an independent consultant with governments and Regional Programmes Director of Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD). AK has worked on provincial, national and inter-sectoral disability strategies, and was also involved in the implementation and evaluation of development programmes in the region of Southern Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia; playing a key role in the establishment, funding and strengthening of organisations of disabled people.
AK stepped down as ADD’s Chair after 3.5 years, and in June 2021 took up the role of ADD’s first Honorary President.
Deborah Botwood Smith, Co-Chair.
Deborah is Business Development Director at Invest Europe, the association of private capital providers representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure investment firms.
Deborah has held CEO and leadership roles in global financial organisations and as well as financial membership bodies and has a track record in building value and engagement. She has particular expertise in corporate reputation and governance issues, corporate culture, ESG, thought leadership and crisis management. She has also worked in public policy, politics and advocacy with a civil society group.
Deborah has an MA in law from the University of Cambridge and an academic interest in constitutional law and human rights. She is a board member of the Andan Foundation, a Swiss non-profit foundation leading private sector initiatives to develop sustainable solutions for refugees and a board member and trustee of The Photographers’ Gallery, London. She was previously a trustee of The Global Media Campaign to end FGM and of Women & Children First.
Matthew Jackson, Co-Chair.
Matthew is passionate about social change and has over 20 years’ experience in programmes, communications and advocacy at several national and international funders and charities.
Matthew’s previous roles include Comic Relief, Oxfam, Y Care International and the disability organisation Scope, where as Head of Social Change he led campaigning and advocacy work on social care, employment and inclusive education.
Matthew is now a co-founder of Impact Works Associates where he leads consultancy work with funders and charities to reimagine their futures and the impact they could have in the world.
Dr Adetokunbo Johnson, Trustee.
Adetokunbo and Ade, as she is often called, is currently a Lecturer in the Politics of the Global South at the Politics department of the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, United Kingdom (UK).
Adetokunbo holds a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree and a Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Multidisciplinary Human Rights from the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa. She also holds a Masters of Arts (MA) degree in Human Rights from the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom (UK). In addition, she has a Bachelor of Science (BSC) degree in Political Science from Babcock University, Nigeria.
Adetokunbo is a human rights practitioner, teacher and researcher with over eight years of experience investigating issues facing marginalised groups.
Adetokunbo’s lived experience as a woman with a disability from the Global South and in Africa, specifically in Nigeria, has fuelled research interests in the politics in Africa, human rights, women’s rights, and disability rights, especially those of women with disabilities. Some other research interests include intersectionality and state reporting on the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol).
Adetokunbo has worked extensively in human rights research, training and advocacy with governments, civil society organisations and National Human Rights Institutions in Africa. She worked at the Centre for Human Rights University of Pretoria, mainly supporting the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa through the state reporting project. In addition, she has actively designed and facilitated capacity-building workshops on state reporting in African countries and at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She has also worked in organisations concerned with disability issues in the UK, such as the Learning Disability Coalition, Mencap and Scope.
Ken Jones, Trustee.
Ken now lives in London following 12 years in Nairobi where he was Chief Operating Officer of TradeMark East Africa, an aid-for-trade programme which he helped establish in 2009.
Ken has gained extensive experience over the past 30 years working on development programmes in 20 countries. This includes coordinating the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Service Delivery Initiative and leading the establishment of the Centre for Good Governance for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He is now a freelance consultant.
Ken is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy, and the Institute of Consulting. He is also an experienced auditor and programme manager.
Ken sits on the Global Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) and on the Disciplinary Committee of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). In his spare time Ken enjoys travel, theatre, philately, and tea.
Richard Mativu, Trustee.
Richard Mativu is the Country Director for Sense International Kenya and based in Nairobi. He has over 15 years’ experience directly working on human rights projects especially those focused on rights for persons with disabilities and children.
Richard has experience designing, implementing, managing, monitoring and evaluating disability programs at the international, national and grassroot community organizations. Richard is experienced in both public and private sector and has served as a Non – Executive Director for some State Corporations in Kenya. He is seasoned on matters of governance and strategic management. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), ongoing with Master of Arts in Human Rights and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Sociology. He also undertook a fellowship at University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign and International Institute of Social Studies – Den Haag, Netherlands.
Liz Sayce, Trustee.
Liz Sayce is a visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and was Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK (and its legacy charity Radar) from 2007-2017, where she led work for equal participation for all, through programmes on independent living, career opportunities and shifts in cultural attitudes and behaviour.
Liz is Vice Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee and a member of the Disability Advisory Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She chaired the Commission for Equality in Mental Health, hosted by the Centre for Mental Health (2018-21). Previous roles include Director of Policy and Communications at the Disability Rights Commission and Policy Director of Mind. She has published widely on disability rights and mental health including a book, From Psychiatric Patient to Citizen (revised edition 2016).
Phillimon Simwaba, Deputy Chair & Trustee Focal Point for Safeguarding.
Phillimon is the Executive Director of the Disability, HIV and AIDS Trust in Zimbabwe.
Phillimon has 30 years’ experience working with disabled people’s organisations at both national and regional levels. This includes working for the Southern African Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) in Zimbabwe as Regional Programmes Manager, where he was responsible for the Small Scale Economic Development (SEED) Programme. His previous experience includes working for the Development Initiative Services (DIS) as a development consultant for Southern and Eastern Africa, and Rehabilitation Manager at the Workers Compensation Fund Control Board.
Phillimon is also an associate member of the Southern Africa Institute of Fundraisers based in South Africa, the CIVICUS World Alliance of NGOs and the Zambia Agency of Persons with Disabilities. He is the Board Chairman of the Childcare Ministries Zimbabwe, Board Member for VSO RAISA, and a member of the Regional African Health NGO Forum.
Rajuna Singh, Trustee.
Rajuna is a special education teacher in Self-help Group for Cerebral Palsy (SGCP) Nepal, the organization is fully committed to support children and adults with Cerebral Palsy.
Rajuna herself is a person with a physical disability and is fully dependent on a wheelchair for mobility. She has over 10 years’ experience working with children and adults with cerebral palsy by using technology, especially computer education and assistive devices. Rajuna has three master degrees and among them one is a Master of Education (Special Education) from Flinders University Australia with the support of Australia Awards Scholarship Program. She is also currently an active board member of Association of Nepalese Alumni from Australia (ANAA).
Vanthon Srey, Trustee.
Vanthon has over 20 years of experience in leadership and management of international NGOs specialized in disability, gender-based violence and children rights in Cambodia.
Vanthon held the role of Cambodia Country Director at ADD International on two separate occasions: from 2001 to 2009 (8 years) and from 2013 to 2019 (6 years). Before that, he spent 6 years facilitating the process of planning decentralization in the country, a program supported by the UNDP and implemented by the Cambodian Government. Vanthon was influenced by these past roles to become a disability rights activist and a mentor for the disability movement in Cambodia and ADD’s other country programs. He is keen to promote disability inclusion through a twin-track approach with a focus on accessibility for equal opportunities and ensuring reasonable accommodation to enable full participation. In addition to above, Vanthon also has professional skills in various areas of communication such as media production, video making and training.
Meet the Leadership Team.
Mary Ann Clements, Co-Chief Executive & Transformation Officer.
Mary Ann Clements joined ADD in July 2021. She has worked in international development spaces for over 20 years and was Executive Director of AbleChildAfrica from 2004 to 2011.
Mary Ann was also previously Regional Representative for BasicNeeds in East Africa. Since 2011 she has worked as an independent consultant with INGOs, funders and the public sector on a whole range of issues related to funding, partnership, wellbeing and power. Alongside being a leader Mary Ann is a writer, facilitator & coach. She is also a Director of Healing Solidarity, a project which has engaged over 3500 people in the practice of re-imagining the global development sector over the past three years. In recent years she has worked extensively on building anti-racist practice in international development spaces and is committed to helping re-think the way international development organisations work so that they can build a solidarity that heals, rather than perpetuates injustice.
Fredrick Ouko, Co-Chief Executive & Transformation Officer.
Fredrick is a Co-Chief Executive &Transformation Officer at ADD International and previously a program officer for disability rights program at Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa.
Fredrick was also the disability inclusion advisor for Kenya, Light for the World Netherlands and formerly a founding executive director of Action Network for the Disabled for 15 years, a national disabled person` organization in Kenya working to improve life prospects of children and youth with disabilities in Kenya through education and sustainable livelihood initiatives.
Fredrick is also the founder of Riziki Source, a social enterprise that facilitates access to job opportunities for persons with disabilities leveraging the power of technology.
He was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2012 for his work around issues of employment for persons with disabilities in Kenya and his mobile application innovation that connects the disabled to job opportunities was shortlisted in 2016/2017 for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
Fredrick is a senior Atlantic Fellow looking at issues of inequalities facing persons with disabilities in Kenya and beyond. He has a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Nairobi, a certificate in Social Innovation Management from Amani Institute.
Fredrick previously advised Disability Rights Fund based in Boston for 8 years bringing on-board issues of youth with disabilities from Eastern Africa and aligning their grant-making to the needs of persons with disabilities and their organizations.
Sabina Basi, Director of Funding, Communications & Transformative Partnerships.
Sabina Basi joined ADD in April 2022. She describes herself as an intersectional feminist and anti-racism activist who is driven by an ancestral mission for social justice.
Sabina’s career in international development spans a decade, including two years living and working in Uganda. Her core expertise is leading fundraising teams to deliver successful institutional funding, programme development and strategic partnership strategies. Having worked at Restless Development for 8.5 years, she has a deep understanding of youth leadership, meaningful youth engagement and youth-led programmes focussing on research, advocacy, sexual and reproductive health and rights and livelihoods. Sabina is also the co-chair of the Changing Donor Policy & Practice working group which is a leading a sector-wide initiative to influence donors to better resource locally-led development & organisations based in the Global South. She is active in the decolonising development and anti-racism debates and is passionate about rethinking & shifting traditional international development practices towards a more equitable approach. As such, Sabina’s leadership and funding & partnerships efforts take on a justice & equity lens, to ensure that power is redistributed to activists and organisations in the South.
Tim Boyes-Watson, Director of Resources, Systems & Culture.
Tim Boyes-Watson joined ADD in October 2023, after providing consulting support to ADD’s transformation process since January 2023. Tim has worked in international development for over 20 years and was Executive Director of Mango from 2010-2017, and subsequently Global Director of Influence and Initiatives after Mango merged with two other INGOs to become Humentum.
Since the start of 2023, Tim has been leading Fair Funding Solutions. Fair Funding Solutions advises non-profits and funders on practical ways to make financial management and funding more equitable and is pushing for system-wide changes in cost recovery, financial reporting and due diligence. Tim holds advisory roles as Chair of the Practitioners Advisory Group of IFR4NPO, Chair of the Verification Advisory Panel for the Core Humanitarian Standard and as a Board Member of Accountability Now. Tim previously worked for Save the Children and Christian Aid was Country Director for VSO in Vietnam, where he led a shift of programme strategy into inclusive education and played a leading role in regional advocacy work on disability rights. Tim is a chartered accountant and holds an MA from Cambridge University, where he studied Philosophy.
Shafiqul Islam, Regional director, Asia.
Engaged in development work since the mid-80s, Shafiqul started with Brac. He then served with national and international NGOs including RDRS/LWF, ADAB, South Asia Partnership, Save the Children, Prip Trust, Action Aid, UNDP, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, and Room to Read.
Rose Tesha, Regional director, Africa.
Rose has led various national and international development programme teams. She has lots of experience in programme management including design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Rose’s professional background is in working with the private sector, particularly in advising international oil and gas companies on social investment programmes. Her last role was in supporting small scale entrepreneurs, women and people with disabilities to access funds and develop viable businesses. Rose has developed projects which have won funds from traditional donors such as the EU, DFIDT, Global Affairs Canada, GIZ, CUSO International and from private sector firms such as Accenture, Shell Deep Water, BG Tanzania and Tanzania LNG. Social Inclusion has been the main focus of Rose’s works in her various contracts including her last role as Interim Head of Programmes at VSO Tanzania. Rose has supported the disability movement through collaborations with various organizations such as UWZ, ADD, CCBRT, SHIVYAWATA, Leonard Cheshire, Wonder Welders and concerned Government Ministries and Departments.