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Degan Ali

Executive DirectorAfrican Development Solutions

Biography

Degan Ali is an internationally-renowned humanitarian leader who has been at the forefront of shifting power for decades. She is a Rockefeller Foundation Global Fellow for Social Innovation, a contributor to the Overseas Development Institute/Humanitarian Policy Group and the Global Food Security Journal. She is also the co-founder of the first Global South civil society network for local and national humanitarian organizations, the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR). She is an innovator, translating ground-breaking ideas into action, such as pioneering the first large-scale cash transfer, in 2003 in Somalia, leading the transition to global acceptance of cash assistance. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera &The Guardian. Her key achievements include leading Adeso in pioneering cash transfers; setting up the 25% localization target as part of the Grand Bargain Commitment. She lives in Kenya and works with organizations & philanthropists across the world.

Related Content

Degan Ali - African Development Solutions, September 23, 2019
Degan Ali is the director of Nairobi-based Adeso, an organization that’s trying to change the way people think about and deliver humanitarian aid. Adeso envisions an Africa not dependent on…