IBP: International Budget Partnership: Open Budgets. Transform Lives.

Albert van Zyl
Van Zyl joined the IBP in August 2005 and is based at IBP-Cape Town. He works on revenue issues and the formulation of a medium term training and technical assistance strategy for the IBP. Van Zyl has consulted to finance ministries, NGOs and legislatures in Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Niger, South Africa, and Uganda and a range of non-African countries. Over the last three years he established and managed the macro-economic and budget offices in the Western Cape Government in South Africa. Between 1997 and 2002 van Zyl worked at the Budget Information Service (BIS) at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) and directed it from 2000-2002. At BIS he focused on local government finance and social service issues. Van Zyl holds Masters Degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economy from the Universities of Stellenbosch and Bordeaux, France. He has published on a range of public finance issues including fiscal policy, social service finance, environmental issues and subnational finance.

Vivek Ramkumar
Ramkumar joined the Center's International Budget Partnership (IBP) in January 2005 and currently works as Manager of IBP's Open Budget Initiative - a global research and advocacy program to promote increased public access to budget information and the adoption of accountable budgeting systems. Ramkumar previously worked with the MKSS - an organization that pioneered the Right to Information movement in India. He also worked with a Mumbai-based nongovernmental organization called SPARC, which is part of the Shack/Slum Dwellers International. Ramkumar is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Tom Zanol
Zanol joined the IBP in 2004 after several years with the Center's Legislative Department. He is the international program coordinator for the Partnership Initiative (PI), a grants program which provides financial and technical assistance to build the capacity of civil society organizations interested in engaging in applied budget work in low-income countries.

Harika Masud
Masud joined the International Budget Partnership in July 2007. As a program officer, she provides research and project management support to the Open Budget Initiative. She provides training and technical assistance to organizations on good practices related to public financial management, reports on project activities, and researches innovative civil society methods and tactics to promote sound public financial management practices. She also assists with country assessments and negotiating contracts and agreements. Prior to working with the IBP, Harika worked with the National Employment Law Project and the World Bank in the United States and the Lahore University of Management Sciences and Kashf Foundation in Pakistan. She obtained her Bachelor degree in Economics and Social Sciences from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, and she holds a MA in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Michigan.

Elena Mondo
Elena Mondo joined the International Budget Partnership in August 2007 as project coordinator for the Open Budget Initiative, a research and advocacy project to promote public access to budget information and accountable budget-making processes and institutions.Prior to joining the IBP, she worked as a consultant for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), coordinating research on budget practices and procedures in the OECD and Latin American countries. This work led to the creation of a comprehensive database for best practices in financial management. Elena holds a BA in international economics and management from Bocconi University, and an MPA in public and economic policy from the London School of Economics.

Jennifer Sleboda
Sleboda joined the International Budget Partnership in July 2007. As Program Officer, she supports IBP's director and training team by working on donor proposals and reports, organizing international conferences and trainings, and assisting with financial administration. She also works with the training team on preparing training materials and providing assistance to IBP partners, and with the communications team on preparing materials for the IBP website and newsletter. Prior to joining the IBP, Jennifer spent four years in Tanzania working with the NGO Hakikazi Catalyst, where she worked on a participatory public expenditure tracking project using citizen scorecards to monitor how poverty reduction strategies are funded and implemented at the local level. She also produced a number of guides simplifying Tanzanian government policies which are used in advocacy, training, and civic education. She holds an MA in Women's Studies, with a concentration in Anthropology, from the George Washington University and a BA in Comparative Cultures from Hood College.

Thokozile Madonko
Madonko joined IBP in September 2008 and will be based at the IBP Cape Town. As a Trainer/Technical Assistance Provider she will be assisting the IBP's Training Program and Partnership Initiative by undertaking course materials development, training and facilitation and technical assistance. Prior to joining the IBP, Thoko spent four years at the Centre of Social Accountability (CSA) based at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa where she worked as a researcher monitoring the performance of the country's Eastern Cape Provincial Health Department. She was then appointed as the Training Manager where she was a part of the development of the Centre's training initiatives. Thoko also taught Political Theory at Rhodes University, and holds a Masters Degree with Distinction in Political Theory.

Manuela Garza
Manuela joined the IBP in July 2007 as Program Officer for the IBP's Partnership Initiative and as Technical Assistance Coordinator for IBP's regranting initiatives. She is based in IBP-Mexico City and within the Partnership Initiative she collaborates with IBP's training team and works with groups in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Prior to joining IBP Manuela worked in Fundar, Center for Analysis and Research in Mexico City where she specialized in education and poverty alleviation budgets and helped coordinate Fundar's gender budget initiative. While carrying out her graduate studies, she volunteered for Family Care International, an organization that focuses on maternal mortality issues. Manuela holds a MA in Social Anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York, a Diploma in Gender and Politics from Mexico's Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) and a BA in International Relations from this same university.

Jason Lakin
Jason joined the IBP part-time in May 2009 as Program Officer for Partnership Initiative. He is currently based in Boston, but will be relocating to IBP's Washington, D.C. office in September, 2009. Prior to joining IBP, Jason completed his Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy, and post-doctoral research in Global Health, at Harvard University. The focus of Jason's research was on the political economy of social policy reform in Mexico (particularly health financing and implementation). Before graduate school, Jason worked briefly as a researcher on tax and housing issues for the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. He has also studied and conducted research in Chile, Germany, Mexico, India and Zimbabwe. He is the co-author, with Seymour Martin Lipset, of The Democratic Century (2004).

Gary Hawes
Hawes joined the IBP in June of 2008 as the associate director of the IBP. He is responsible, in collaboration with the IBP management team, for developing, refining, and implementing organizational management systems; as well as IBP's relations with the donor community. He will also play an active role in the Partnership Initiative's learning agenda. Prior to joining the Center, Hawes spent 12 years as a Ford Foundation program officer responsible for grant making in the governance and civil society fields, first in the Philippines and then in Southern Africa. Hawes has also taught comparative political economy at the University of Michigan and Ohio University, and holds a Phd in political science from the University of Hawaii.

Ravi Duggal
Ravi Duggal joined IBP in October 2008 to assist the Partnership Initiative as senior trainer and health analyst. Since 2005 Ravi has been doing independent consulting work on budgets and governance issues, across 11 countries in Asia. Prior to that he has worked for 25 years with NGOs like the Foundation for Research in Community Health, SWISSAID and CEHAT in the health and development sector. His previous work includes extensive research, advocacy and trainings in public finance and budget related issues, such as the development of a time-series health budget database at the national and subnational level for India from 1951 onwards.

Delaine McCullough
Delaine McCullough joined the IBP in June 2008 as the communications manager. She oversees the partnership's print and electronic communications and manages media relations. Before coming to the IBP McCullough was the director of marketing and communications for PDK International, an education association that works to strengthen K-12 education worldwide and cultivate future educators. Her other communciations experience includes managing the media relations for the 1999 Microcredit Summit Meeting of Councils in Abidjan and contributing to the media outreach efforts of various environmental and economic justice organizations. Her prior experience also includes four years as a policy analyst with the California Budget Project, where she worked on education finance and tax policy. McCullough holds an Master's of Public Affairs with a concentration in comparative international affairs from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Sowmya Kidambi
Sowmya Kidambi joined the IBP as Trainer/Technical Assistance Provider in October 2008. She will be responsible for conducting IBP training courses on expenditure tracking with a special emphasis on social audits. Since 1998 she worked with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) based in Rajasthan, India. MKSS played an important role in the formulation and passage of the right to information and the employment guarantee laws in India. While Sowmya continues to be a member of the MKSS, since April 2006 she has been its representative on an assignment as Social Development Specialist with the Strategies and Performance Innovations Unit, Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh (India) to institutionalize the social audit process as part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Sowmya holds a Masters Degree in Social Work (Urban and Rural Community Development) from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay, India.

Maurice Nsabimana
Maurice Nsabimana joined the IBP in March 2009 as Senior Analyst for the IBP's Open Budget Initiative. His primary focus is on collaborative research in budget transparency and oversight at national and sub-national levels of government. Prior to joining IBP, Maurice worked in the private sector, civil society, and at multilateral institutions. Most recently, he worked on macroeconomic policy at the World Bank, where he focused on debt and fiscal sustainability in Central and Western Africa. Previously, Maurice served as a legal assistant to former U.S. Attorney-General Ramsey Clark at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Maurice holds an MA in international affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in Computer Science from Vesalius College in Brussels, Belgium.

Iris Lav
As Deputy Director of the Center, Lav directs the Center’s state-level work on fiscal, safety net, and outreach programs and also directs the Center’s policy work on federal tax issues. She is the founder of the Center’s State Fiscal Project and has been instrumental in creating the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a network of U.S. state organizations working on state budget and tax issues. She is interviewed regularly and her work often is cited by the press, including The Washington Post, the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. In addition to her responsibilities at the Center, Lav currently serves as a member of the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission. Prior to joining the Center, she was associate director of public policy for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and a senior associate at a consulting firm. She holds an MBA from George Washington University and an AB from the University of Chicago.

Michelle Bazie
Bazie is the Deputy Director of Communications and Manager of On-Line Services. She manages a variety of media projects, including broadcast, print, and electronic press relations, coordinates distribution of Center reports to the media, and maintains the Center's database of over 3,000 press contacts. As architect of the web site, Bazie develops, designs, and maintains the Center's resence on the Internet. Bazie moderates all Center listserves and is currently working on technology and media strategies for the Center's International Budget Partnership.