Rose is Director of the disability rights-based organization Action on Disability and Development International Tanzania, which fights for independence, equality, and opportunities for people with disabilities. For the past five years Rose has been providing leadership and strategic direction to the organization. She has designed and rolled out key disability related research projects, such as the voice of children with disabilities, improving livelihoods of persons with disabilities through economic empowerment and disability and gender-based violence. She led the Disability Inclusive Development Pre-primary Primary Inclusive Education model development and promoted a holistic and systemic delivery approach to inclusive education in Tanzania. Rose helped women and girls with disabilities to organize themselves by setting up national and district level-platforms, which proved the most effective and sustainable mechanisms for change. Rose has galvanised support from Groups, like CSOs, NGO, OPDs, private sector and ministries responsible for persons with disabilities to support the agenda of women and girls with disabilities.

George Katumba Sempangi is the Global Young Leaders Advisor working for Action on Disability and Development. George got polio at the age of four, which affected one of his right limbs. For the last year, he has been instrumental in designing the Young Leaders Programme and ensuring that young people with disabilities develop their leadership potential and bringing out their abilities. He has been instrumental in supporting the capacity building of organizations of persons with disabilities in Uganda with extensive knowledge on inclusive education and inclusive economic empowerment. He has facilitated different audiences concerning the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as national legal, policy and institutional frameworks for the promotion of human rights and inclusion of people with disabilities. George has worked with several emerging and marginalized disabilities, like the Vitiligo Association Uganda to amplify their voices within the disability movement. As part of the team he aims to boost advocacy for persons with disabilities in East Africa.

Catalin Brylla is Principal Lecturer in Film and TV at Bournemouth University, where he serves as Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict, Emotion and Social Justice. He also chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image. He has published the book Documentary and Stereotypes: Reducing Stigma through Factual Media, and he has co-edited the volumes Documentary and Disability (with Helen Hughes) and Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film (with Mette Kramer). His theoretical and practice-led research advocate for media practitioners’ understanding of how representations impact on society’s perception of stigmatised groups, such as disabled people, African communities, sex workers and women in minority communities. He has made a variety of documentaries about such groups, including The Terry Fragments, June’s Patchwork and Zanzibar Soccer Dreams, co-directed with Florence Ayisi. 

Filippo Trevisan is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor at American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C. He also serves as Deputy Director of AU’s Institute on Disability and Public Policy. His research explores the intersection of digital technology, advocacy, and activism. Much of his work focuses on digital disability advocacy and disabled people’s political participation through technology. He is the author of Disability Rights Advocacy Online: Voice, Empowerment and Global Connectivity (Routledge, 2017) and his next book Advocacy Campaigns and the Datafication of Stories (with Michael Vaughan and Ariadne Vromen) is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press. He is the current chair of the Information Technology & Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Germany’s ZDF, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, and RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana.

Chika Sakashita is the Director of Research and Accountability for the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. She leads the strategic planning, development and implementation of the Alliance’s research, accountability and capacity development work, building the Alliance’s and NGOs’ impact in road safety. Chika brings a wealth of experience in road safety delivery – in government, academic research, NGO advocacy, as well as independent consulting to multiple international organisations and governments, advising and supporting practical applications of evidence-based policies and interventions in states, countries, regions and globally. Prior to joining the Alliance Secretariat, Chika made significant contributions to the Alliance’s seminal work “The Day Our World Crumbled: The Human Cost of Inaction on Road Safety” and “Good Practice Guide: Meaningful NGO Participation”. Chika has a PhD from School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Psychology from School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, both University of Sydney.

Abdullah Hamza Mohammed is a Lecturer of Film and Media Studies at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts from Ohio University and MA in Media Studies from West Virginia States University, USA, MA in Development Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Fine and Performing Arts from the University of Dar es Salaam. Mohammed teaches Film, Media Management, and Art Communication and Social Mobilization and facilitates in participatory interventions through arts. He has worked with International Labour Organization, Care International, African Humanities Programme, Tanzania Theatre Center, Tanzania Community Civic Initiative, Research and Education for Democracy and the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair of Pan-African Studies. Mohammed works with human rights advocacy groups and is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of Legal and Human Rights Center, a leading human rights advocacy non-profit organization in Tanzania.

Sana’ Khasawneh is a young road safety advocate from Jordan. She works as advocacy and campaigns Manager at YOURS. She has been selected as the first ambassador for the European Year for Youth 2022 to recognize her voluntary work and initiatives in areas related to sustainability, eco-tourism, and road safety. She has also been awarded the best film prize for the youth category at the Global Road Safety Film Festival 2022. She believes in meaningful youth empowerment and engagement as an important pillar to achieving the goal of the 2nd decade of action for road safety. Currently, she is leading the public engagement ad youth advocates workstream at the Global Youth Coalition by engaging with young leaders working closely with their local communities and decision-makers to generate impact at the grassroots level.

Stefania is from Italy and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and International Relations and a Master’s Degree in International Development Cooperation. She has over a decade of experience in international cooperation and promoting human rights and gender equality. She started her career with Unicef in Bolivia, the International Labour Organization in the Dominican Republic, with Save the Children at the national, regional, and global level (Asia, Africa, America, and the Middle East) on project management, advocacy, and campaigns, Policy analysis, and research, children and youth participation.
Besides her work experience, she has improved stakeholders’ knowledge and capacity for advocacy, campaigning, and communication to enhance social change through meaningful child and youth participation. Stefania is fostering the Advocacy strategy to demand and deliver road safety and sustainable mobility public policies in liaison with young advocates and partners.

Virginia Atkinson is co-author of IFES’s COVID-19 Briefing Series: Inclusion and Meaningful Participation, which examines both obstacles and opportunities to equal political participation brought on by the pandemic, and offers guidance for democracy and governance practitioners, policymakers, and supporters. She has supported disabled people’s organizations to conduct public policy advocacy, including on issues related to access to health care and disaster risk management. People with disabilities, who experience discrimination and other barriers to political access, are at risk of having their right to participate compromised during emergencies. Atkinson is working with disabled people’s organizations in countries around the world to adapt political participation programming to the COVID-19 context. This includes ensuring virtual programming is accessible and inclusive.

Vanessa (also known as Ness) is Head of Participatory Grantmaking and Movement Support at ADD International. She is working to establish grant making that shifts the power to persons with disabilities in the Global South, and to support strong collaboration within and between disability, women’s and youth movements. Her focus has always been voice, justice and collaborative action. Before coming to ADD, she was Director of the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Director of Advocacy and Director of Technical Capacity Building at the Revenue Watch Institute, and Head of Economic Policy at Save the Children UK. She lived for four years in Asia working on health systems strengthening. She was a Reddaway Scholar at Cambridge University, Frank Knox Scholar at Harvard University/Kennedy School of Government, has a Masters from the London School of Hygiene and has taught at Central European University. She loves to dance!

Dr. Florence Kyaruzi is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education and Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies at the Dar es Salaam University College of Education, University of Dar es Salaam. He holds Ph.D (Leaning Sciences) from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). His research expertise includes student and teacher perceptions of assessment, feedback and learning from errors, mathematics education, gender discrepancies in STEM, and assessment accommodation. He has published several articles in the specified areas (https://orcid.org/. 0000-0003-4660-6764) and he is the current Head of the Department of Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies. Kyaruzi also has experience in leading multidisciplinary research projects in STEM and teacher professional development.

Dr. Mohammed Loutfy is the Global Initiative on Inclusive ICTs (G3ICT) director on capacity building and advocacy, where he manages G3ICT’s Digital Accessibility Right Education (DARE) Academy, alongside his position on the Middle East and North Africa Focal Point for G3ICT’s International Association for Accessibility Professionals. Prior to his joining G3ICT, Mohammed was appointed to Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) executive director. Since 2016 he has been the DPI representative at the United Nations, where he currently co-chairs the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2019 Mohammed earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the American University of Washington, DC. In 2009 he earned his Master’s degree in International Development as a Fulbright Scholar, also at the American University in Washington DC. In 2001 he earned his undergraduate degree in Public Law from the Lebanese University in Beirut.