Caroline Kende-Robb

Ms. Kende-Robb brings over 30 years of leadership and management experience in development and humanitarian sectors, coupled with deep knowledge and practical experience in achieving organizational effectiveness and results through strategic planning, effective financial management, and nurturing high-performing teams.

Ms. Kende-Robb is currently the Director for Strategy and Operational Policies at the African Development Bank. Previously, as Senior Adviser to ACET, Ms. Kende-Robb played a vital role in influencing policy across Africa and globally to support Africa’s long-term growth through transformation. Prior to joining the ACET, she was Secretary-General of the international non-government organization CARE International, a confederated international non-government organization operating in 100 countries worldwide, with over 10,000 staff. CARE International has a dual mandate of sustainable development and humanitarian assistance with a focus on empowering women and girls.

Previously she was Chief Adviser to the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, at the Education Commission, where met with heads of state alongside the former President of Tanzania, H.E. Jakaya Kikwete, to secure high-level political support for substantial financing for a new International Finance Facility for Education.

From 2011 to 2016, she was Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel, a unique multisector policy and research organization with high-level political access, where she worked closely with the Chair, Kofi Annan. Ms. Kende-Robb directed the production of the Panel’s annual analytical reports on Africa, which were focused on various topics including climate change, Africa’s energy transformation, the green and blue revolutions, gender, equity, and justice.

Ms. Kende-Robb worked at the World Bank (1995-1999 and 2005-2011) as a senior manager for the Sustainable Development Network in the regions of Africa, Europe and Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific, and at the International Monetary Fund (1999-2005) in the African Department and was the first Poverty and Social Development Advisor recruited to manage the introduction of a poverty and social perspective into the Fund’s macroeconomic programs and policy dialogue.

Ms. Kende-Robb has also worked as Community Development Advisor on an artisanal fisheries development project, with the EU and The Gambian Government, as a Field Director for Africa Now, and as Poverty Alleviation Focal Point for the United Nations Development Program, all in The Gambia. For two years, she lived in the Gambian village of Tanji and learnt to speak Mandinka. She began her career as a manager in the private sector, with Marks and Spencer Plc, where she spent five years.

Ms. Kende-Robb holds a Master of Science degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts honors degree in Geography from Liverpool University. She was a member of three Global Future Councils of the World Economic Forum on Africa, Justice, and Growth and Social Inclusion, and is currently a Board Director of Global Financial Integrity and a Trustee of CAMFED International, an NGO focused on girls’ education in Africa.