MEDIA

Echoes from the field

ALSF Management Board appoints new Chairperson

The African Legal Support Facility (“Facility” or “ALSF”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs. Manisha Dookhony as Chairperson of its Management Board.

At an Extraordinary Meeting of the Management Board (the “Board”) held on 25 September 2023, the Board elected Ms. Manisha Dookhony as its Chairperson effective from 24 October 2023.

Mrs. Manisha Dookhony is a thought leader and change-maker with a strong focus on Africa. A Mason Fellow and Oval Office Fellow, she holds a master’s in public administration from Harvard University Kennedy School. She is an economist by formation as an ICCR Scholar at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.  With strong linkages across Francophone and Anglophone Africa, Manisha has extensive experience advising business leaders and leaders in governments on investment transactions and implementing impactful projects. 

Manisha is a seasoned board director and serves on the boards of various international institutions, including as Chairperson of Mindex Ltd which is the first regulated digital exchange of Mauritius. She also co-founded the Women in Finance and Investment Association of Mauritius and is a special advisor for Women in Finance, Rwanda. She is a Senior Advisor to the Namibian Investment Promotion and Development Board, and currently chairs the Harvard Group for Mauritius. She was previously the vice chair of the Alumni Association of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Manisha co-manages EU Africa Rise, a multi-million Euro EU facility covering twenty-five countries in Eastern, Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, whose flagship projects include establishing a biopharma framework for Mauritius, digitalization of the port of Seychelles, and Critical Raw Materials projects. 

She joined the ALSF Management Board in June 2022. 

Commenting on her appointment as Chairperson of the Board, Manisha highlighted the potential long-term impact of the ALSF’s operations and hoped to lead the Board in supporting the ambitions of the ALSF to achieve its mission to strengthen the legal capacity in Africa, undertake sustainable commercial transactions for broad-based inclusive green growth and development. She emphasized that “decisions of the Management Board can result in high impact on the lives of people whether through electricity generated, sovereign wealth fund established, debt renegotiated, and other legal interventions by the ALSF”.

Manisha also thanked her fellow Board members for placing their trust and confidence in her abilities. As the first Economist to chair the ALSF Management Board, Manisha noted that the ALSF leads in positive and progressive leadership, including women leadership, as she walks in the footsteps of giants - being the third successive woman to chair the ALSF Board, after Mrs. Eva Jhala and Mrs. Christine Agimba, respectively.

 

The ALSF’s Management Board is responsible for the efficient and effective conduct of all operations of the Facility, as well as the approval of its Budget and appointment of its Director. The Board comprises five members of high integrity and competence, acting in their individual capacity, and are appointed by the Governing Council for a three-year, non-renewable term. The current members of the Board are Ms. Manisha Dookhony, Mr. Diko Mukete, Ms. Pippa Tubman Amerding, Dr Felister Saliku Kivisi and Dr. Roland Amoussou-Guenou.

 

About the ALSF

Hosted by the African Development Bank since 2008, the ALSF assists African governments in negotiating complex commercial transactions, providing legal and technical assistance, and developing capacity building tools in the key sectors of energy, infrastructure and public-private partnerships, natural resources, extractives industries and sovereign finance. 

 

Contact us

Eve Ehoura, Communication officer : e.ehoura@afdb.org