Dr. Luqman Afolabi is a senior economist with over eleven years of experience in academia, applied research, and policy consultancy. He holds a PhD in International Economics and Development from Universiti Utara Malaysia. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Kigali, Rwanda, and works as a Senior Research Consultant with the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR Rwanda).
Dr. Afolabi has an extensive publication record in peer reviewed journals, with research focused on macroeconomics, trade, economic development, and policy analysis, particularly in sub Saharan Africa. His work combines rigorous quantitative methods with policy relevant analysis and has supported evidence based decision making across the region. He has also provided consultancy services to national and international institutions, including the United Nations, and has contributed to policy formulation and evaluation processes in Rwanda.
He is a member of several professional bodies, including the American Economic Association, UNCTAD Virtual Institute, Nigerian Economic Society, and the Association of African Young Economists. His research interests include macroeconomic policy, globalization, and development economics, with a strong emphasis on African economies.

Dr. Evariste Gahima joined the Institute of Policy Analysis, Rwanda in September 2018 as a Research Fellow having worked as a Lecturer at the University of Rwanda for 12 years. Gahima holds a PhD in Education Management from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, MBA (International Business) from Amity University, India, MRes in social and Educational Research Methods, from University of Rwanda and a BA (Hons) in Mass communication from National University of Rwanda. He is interested in Research and development programs including Governance, education, environment, public Administration and leadership. He has published various articles in the internationally reviewed journals, various conference paper presentations and has co-authored Research Method book for Business students and monograph for referencing techniques and plagiarism prevention

Dr. Prosper Ndizihiwe holds a PhD in Renewable Energy for Environmental Protection from the University of Rwanda- African Center of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (UR/ACE-ESD). He holds a M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)- Cameroon and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the former National University of Rwanda (NUR).

Prior to joining IPAR-Rwanda, Ndizihiwe worked as a researcher at International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-Rwanda) and Rwanda Cooling Initiative (R-COOL) Program.
Mr. Ndizihiwe participated in different research and innovative programs on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Alternatives to Fossil Fuels as Energy Sources. He has published different peer reviewed manuscripts, mobile applications and online calculators.
Mr. Ndizihiwe’s research focuses on Green Energy & Economy, Climate Change Mitigations and Adaptations and Environmental Protection Strategies.

Dr. Muhirwa Jean Pierre is a PhD holder of Applied Mathematics and Computational Science from Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology in Tanzania. As an academic and a researcher, he is dedicated and passionate about doing research in various fields. He has a strong academic and research backgrounds with a tremendous experience in research and policy brief analysis. He has been working in higher learning institutions for more than 10 years. During his academic and research career, he participated in different grant projects and he published articles in different peer reviewed journals. He has shown expertise in various research fields, namely, mathematical modeling of population growth, chemical engineering, mathematical models for physical systems and mathematical models for infectious diseases and he is much interested in data analysis.

Mr. Turyasingura Benson is an environmental scientist and researcher with over eight years of experience in research, university teaching, and community engagement, specializing in agriculture, food systems, natural resource management, and environmental sustainability. He previously served as an Assistant Lecturer at Kabale University, Uganda, where he contributed to teaching, research, and student mentorship.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Kabale University (Uganda) and a Master of Science in Climate-Smart Agriculture from Haramaya University (Ethiopia). He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Science (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management) at Kabale University, with research focused on advancing sustainable environmental management and climate resilience.

Mr. Turyasingura's research centers on soil and water resources management, climate-smart agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem sustainability. His work contributes to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 13 (Climate Action) through the development and promotion of evidence-based, climate-smart interventions that enhance agricultural productivity and environmental resilience.

He possesses strong technical expertise in R programming, research design and data analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), artificial intelligence (AI) applications for environmental research, as well as soil physics and soil chemistry. His interdisciplinary skill set enables him to integrate advanced analytical tools with field-based research to generate practical solutions for sustainable development.

Paul joined IPAR in 2008 as a Research Assistant charged with supporting research teams in, among other things, drafting research questionnaires, data collection and analysis. He is working on the household enterprise, access to health care in remote rural areas and one cow a poor family research projects. His linguistic skills are in high demand. Paul brings to IPAR his experience senior managerial positions especially in the public sector public. He was Mayor of Kicukiro District, Kigali between 1994 and 2001.

He worked at the Ministry of Local Administration, Communal Development and Social Affairs (MINALOC) between 2001 and 2005 where he held a number of senior positions including Director of National Programme for Childhood and Expert in Reinforcement of Institutional and Human Capacity Building. He has also served as an Expert in Documentation, Information and Communication at the National (Rwanda) Secretariat in Charge of Decentralization (NDIS). Paul holds a bachelors degree in For the detailed CV email: : p.kayira@ipar-rwanda.org

Christelle Umutesi is a Research Assistant at IPAR-Rwanda. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration majoring in Accounting from Adventist University of Central Africa (AUCA) located in Kigali, Rwanda. She also has a Master’s degree in Development Planning and Administration from a School of Development Planning (SDP) at the Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) ; which is affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University (former University of Pune) located in Pune city (India). At IPAR-Rwanda, she contributed to research on different projects including
Understanding the Factors Associated with Poverty, Evaluation of Seven (7) Years Government Programs in Rwanda, Updating the Master Plan of Kigali City and updating the Master Plan of Secondary Cities of Rwanda, Understanding the Effect of Education Costs on Education Attainment under the Basic Education in Rwanda, Understanding the Determinants of Household Savings in Rwanda, Youth Employment, Education and Skills (YEES) in Rwanda and Affordability and Willingness to pay for Clean Water in Rural area in Rwanda

Delphine is a Research Assistant at IPAR-Rwanda. Prior to joining IPAR-Rwanda, She was a Research Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow at Population Services International (PSI)-Rwanda. She participated in monitoring, evaluation and reporting of programs funded by USAID, CDC, UNFPA, KFW and DOD, in doing several activities such as provision of training to new data collectors and data entry clerks, to supervise data collection for over 15 studies in different areas like Malaria, HIV, Nutrition, Safe Water, GBV(Gender based violence), and Family Planning. She has also worked as consultant in different organizations such as Swiss Tropical and public health, Society for Family Heath (SFH)-Rwanda, World Health Organization (WHO) and consulting companies such as CONCORDIA, and Dalberg Research where she performed data collection and supervision for both qualitative and quantitative studies ; data entry, data cleaning, and data quality management.
She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Kigali Independent University (ULK).