Meet the secretariat

The Global Public Investment Network Secretariat

Harpinder Collacott

Executive Director

A seasoned leader with over two decades in international development, human rights, and foreign policy, Harpinder is currently working on consultancy projects having just completed two years and a major transformation initiative as the Executive Director for Mercy Corps in Europe. As a leader, she has led dynamic teams in both the think tank and practitioner space, driving impactful humanitarian and development initiatives at the critical intersection of climate and conflict resilience.

Wanjiru Kanyiha

Network Coordinator

From Nairobi, Kenya. Wanjiru is a passionate change maker and social impact advocate with a legal background and with over ten years project and transaction management in the not for profit sector. She currently coordinates the activities of GPIN. Always available at wanjiru@globalpublicinvestment.net

Alan Diaz

Administrative Assistant

From Guadalajara, Mexico. Alan has a background in International Relations, with experience in operations, and entrepreneurship, as well as an interest in all things creative. He provides administrative support for GPIN. He’ll be happy to answer any questions at alan@globalpublicinvestment.net

The Global Public Investment Network Steering Committee

The steering committee sets the strategic direction to enable the achievement of global public investment.

Steering Committee Chairs

Stephen Chacha

Co-Founder, Development Transformations (DevTransform) Chair

Stephen is a development professional with more than fifteen years of experience in development programmes, human centered design, strategic planning, campaigning, government relations, research, conservation, data for development, data driven innovations, evidence-based decision making, policy formulation, and advocacy in Tanzania, Africa, and globally.

He is a seasoned and respected development expert who co-founded the Africa Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (ARCSEM), Africa Working Group (AWG), Africa Philanthropic Foundation (APF), Tanzania Data Lab (dLab), Uwezo Tanzania, Tanzania Youth Vision Association, and the Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania (YUNA-TZ).

He also sits in several global expert panels on UN reforms, Sustainable Development Goals, Finance for Development, Earth Observation, Data, and Innovation.

Andrea Ordoñez

Independent - Senior Research Fellow, Southern Voice Vice Chair

Andrea Ordóñez Llanos is Executive Director of Southern Voice, a network of over sixty think tanks from Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Asia leveraging southern evidence and analysis to promote fair global development debates.

An economist by training, Andrea was previously Research Director at Grupo FARO, a think tank in Ecuador. Her main research interests are social policy, public finance, financing for development and international cooperation. Her aim is to ensure that new voices and ideas from the Global South are heard across regions. She is a member of FCDO’s International Development Expert Group and of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and a board member of Publish What You Fund.

Steering Committee Members

Solange Baptiste

Executive Director, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition

Solange Baptiste is Executive Director of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). She leads community activists and allies across the globe to deliver ITPC’s mission to enable people in need to access optimal and affordable HIV treatment through treatment education, demand creation, community-based monitoring and interventions to make medicines more affordable. Solange has over 15 years of global program management and advocacy experience and specialises in monitoring and evaluation. She has a depth of knowledge in social epidemiology, health financing and community systems strengthening in the developing world through her work on USAID/PEPFAR health and development, bilateral and multi-county projects across Africa and Asia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Tuskegee University and her Master of Science in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Solange is committed to ensuring that the voice of affected communities contributes to and influences the decisions and policies that affect their lives.

Simon Reid-Henry

Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo

Simon Reid-Henry is an academic and a key contributor to the conceptual development of Global Public Investment. Simon is a member of the EWG Steering Committee and is Academic Lead for the EWG’s technical papers. He has written widely on international affairs, development, and political economy, including the books The Cuban Cure: Reason and Resistance in Global Science and The Political Origins of Inequality: Why a more equal world is better for us all. Simon is a Fellow of the RSA and a recipient of the Leverhulme Prize. He received his PhD in Economic Geography from the University of Cambridge before moving to Queen Mary University of London where he is presently Professor of Historical and Political Geography and Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has held visiting positions at Columbia University in New York, at Macquarie University in Sydney, at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs and as Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Simon is also co-convenor of London Inequality Studies. His writing can be found in The Guardian, New Statesman, The Economist, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, and the London Review of Books. He has appeared on radio and television and has presented to government agencies in the UK and abroad. Recently he has contributed to the UK Labour task force on international development and is currently collaborating with the Joep Lange Institute on GPI.

Mike Podmore

Director, STOPAIDS

Mike Podmore is an advocacy and network specialist that has been working in the field of HIV, health, gender and human rights for 20 years. Since 2015 he has been Director of STOPAIDS – an HIV, health and human rights advocacy network of 50 UK international development agencies working globally to end AIDS and realises all people’s right to health and wellbeing. Prior to STOPAIDS he was Policy Manager at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and worked for 9 years at VSO on HIV, gender and education policy.

Jonathan Glennie

Director, Global Cooperation Institute

Jonathan Glennie is a writer, campaigner and consultant on human rights, international cooperation, sustainable development and poverty. His work looks in particular at the changing nature of international cooperation as dominant paradigms and global economic relationships evolve. He has held senior positions in several international organisations, including Save the Children, Christian Aid and Ipsos. He has published two books on aid and cooperation (The trouble with aid: why less could mean more for Africa and Aid, growth and poverty with Andy Sumner) and helped set up The Guardian‘s Global Development website, for which he was a regular columnist. As a consultant, he has worked with governments, international agencies and civil society organisations as they renew their strategies for a new era. His book The Future of Aid: Global Public Investment, was published by Routledge in November 2020. He is currently co-founder of a think tank called Global Nation, along with Hassan Damluji, working on a new approach to international cooperation. He lives with his family in Colombia.

Charlene Omrawo

Charlene Omrawo is the Strategy and Organizational Effectiveness Lead at ITPC.

Her experience expands across public-, private and NGO-sectors, with over 10 years’ experience in organizational strategy, transitional operational efficiencies, and organizational development. She has carved a niche footprint in the global public health sphere, working with executive teams and Board directors in designing and developing charters/mandates, business strategies and organizational impact assessment. She is well versed in advanced research methodology, from protocol development to practical roll-out.

Charlene is passionate about staying ahead of the curve to bridge the gaps between health systems and disease burdens, especially in the era where climate change and other uncertainties further complicate the mission. She is constantly on the lookout for innovative solutions that not only mitigate-, but also alleviate the impact of health-related issues, with the ultimate goal of affording individuals a better quality of life. Outside of work, Charlene is either globe-trotting, engrossed in a good book or training her dogs to be good furry citizens of the world.

Eloise Todd

Co-founder of Pandemic Action Network

Eloise Todd is the executive director and a co-founder of Pandemic Action Network. Eloise is an advocacy, policy, campaigns, and strategy specialist with 20 years’ experience working to change policies, legislation and budgets to improve lives. Primarily, she has worked in international development, including as a political adviser on development issues within EU institutions and running international advocacy and global policy at the ONE Campaign. Eloise campaigned against the UK’s Brexit deal, building one of the largest pro-European organizations into a national campaign force. She is known for achieving ambitious policy changes, including: leading the effort to oblige gas, oil, and mining companies to publish what they pay governments, helping raise millions in additional government funding for GAVI and the Global Fund, and advocating for increased aid budgets.

Damien King

Executive Director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute

In his capacity as Executive Director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, Damien convenes the Caribbean 2030 Leaders Network – a group consisting of young, energetic business, political, and civic leaders who meet annually to discuss and engineer the future of Caribbean development. Damien also lectures in the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

Damien’s applied research has been published in numerous CAPRI reports on economic policy. His academic research, on debt, poverty, and international trade, has been published in international journals and edited collections. He is the author and editor (with David Tennant) of Debt and Development in Small Island Developing States, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Patricia Alemañy

International Relations and Social Impact

Paty Alemañy brings a professional background specialising in international relations and social impact. With a career spanning various roles, she has actively contributed to the development of the Global Public Investment (GPI) concept, managed significant projects, and co-authored publications driving positive change. Her experience includes collaborating with multiple United Nations offices and CSOs, where she has honed skills in research, project coordination, and social media management. She studied International Relations at UDELAR in Uruguay and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in International Economics and Development at Universidad Complutense de Madrid.