Our Staff
DFI works with a roster of more than 80 consultants across the world, 90% of whom are from the global South. Our core central staff are:
Alain Fofeh, Project Manager, Meridian. Alain manages our project agreement with the Commonwealth Secretariat to be the distributors of the Commonwealth Meridian© computerised debt management system. He is responsible for the implementation of all the existing country projects, and especially for the extension of the programme to Francophone countries given that the system is available in French. Alain has over 18 years of experience working with the CS-DRMS and Meridian systems, including as a Commonwealth Secretariat staff member, an independent consultant and for the Afriland First Bank Group. Alain has worked as consultant for BEAC, MEFMI, IMF, and AfDB on multiple debt management projects, most recently for Benin, Cameroon, Eswatini and Oman.
Maria Holloway, Government Expenditure Data Team Lead and Website Coordinator. Maria is responsible for the government social spending data underlying the Debt Service Watch, Government Spending Watch and Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index programmes, and leads on primary data compilation for countries whose official languages are English, Portuguese or Spanish. She also coordinates the various DFI, GSW and CRI websites, and is responsible for coordinating the logistics and training manuals of our training workshops and missions, including for our partnership with the World Bank in the Debt Management Facility and our partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat on the Meridian debt software.
Gail Hurley, Senior Consultant, Debt and Development Finance Policy. Gail supports our research and analysis of debt and development finance policy. In the last year she has led studies for UNAIDS on Using Debt Relief and DRM to End AIDS as a Public Health Threat in Africa, a report for the School Meals Coalition on Debt Swaps for School Feeding, a study for FES on making Debt Sustainability Analysis More Transparent and contributed to our research for IBP on Making Debt Policy More Accountable to Domestic Stakeholders. Her current work focusses on debt relief for SIDS and other countries affected by climate and biodiversity loss, following on from a briefing paper released before COP 28. Gail is an independent consultant and has previously worked for Finance Earth, UNDP and EURODAD.
Mame Pierre Kamara, Director, Francophone Debt and Development Finance Programmes. Mame Pierre has worked with DFI for more than 20 years, on debt and development finance issues, focussing on the 26 Francophone African countries. He has worked on both policy issues (including debt strategies, debt sustainability analyses and analysis of new external and domestic financing options) and debt management issues (including laws, procedures, DMO organisation and databases). He leads our work in partnership with the World Bank providing support through the Debt Management Facility for Francophone countries. Mame Pierre has also worked for the African Development Bank, BCEAO, European Union, IMF, UNDP, World Bank as a consultant, and previously for the Senegalese government debt and aid departments.
Matthew Martin, Executive Director. Matthew established DFI in 1996, aiming to mobilise the best debt relief and new development finance to fight poverty and inequality. Matthew has been advising developing countries, development partners and other stakeholders on these issues since 1991. He leads and quality controls all DFI work, especially programme design, liaison with funders and stakeholders, strategic planning and fundraising. His current research and advocacy focusses on ending the global South’s worst ever debt crisis, and on progressive tax policy to fight inequality (leading the tax work on the CRI). Matthew previously worked for the World Bank, Overseas Development Institute and Oxford University.
José Maurel, Debt Management Programme Director. José is responsible for our debt management programme, including all projects which involve providing “downstream” in-country support to developing countries. This includes providing overall supervision for the Commonwealth Meridian programme, and DFI’s activities promoting government transparency and accountability on debt to domestic stakeholders. Most recently José led our study for IBP on Making Debt Policy More Accountable to Domestic Stakeholders. José is a former Special Advisor to the Secretary General, and was Director of the Special Advisory Services Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat responsible for country assistance on a number of areas including debt management.
Myriam Sallah, Francophone Programme Manager and Environment Spending Data Lead. Myriam is responsible for our growing work on compiling data on planned and budgeted environmental spending (including on climate and biodiversity). She has also compiled government spending data for Francophone countries, and managed our Francophone programme activities, including Ministerial Meetings, training programmes and missions, and related communications products, supporting around 30 lower-income Francophone countries.
David Waddock, Director of Data and Finance, and Debt/Tax Data Team Lead. David is responsible for all our data products (Debt Service Watch, Government Spending Watch and the Commitment to Reducing Inequality database). In particular, he leads the compilation of debt and tax data for these databases from global and national sources, as well as compiling primary government spending, tax and debt data from budgets for English-, Arabic- and Russian-speaking countries. He also leads on all financial and contractual aspects of managing our programmes, and on staff recruitment and human resources.
Jo Walker, Acting Programme Manager, Inequality. Jo manages our inequality-related programmes, especially the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index and Report, and has led on the writing of its public services and labour analysis, and on quality controlling the data collection and methodology on public services. She has also run other projects relating to public services arising from Government Spending Watch, including for the Global Campaign for Education, Action Aid and Water Aid. Jo has previously worked for Action Aid, Oxfam and the Global Campaign for Education on public services, tax justice, gender and labour rights issues.
