Gwendolyn Beetham is senior program coordinator at Douglass Residential College, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, USA. She has worked for women's research institutes and gender justice organizations around the world and has taught gender studies at the London School of Economics, Rutgers University, and Brooklyn College. Her research interests include gender-based violence, LGBT rights, and critical development theory. She has a PhD from the Gender Institute at the LSE.

Bill Anderson is a principal member of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, or MFAN, and a visiting professor at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs. During his service as USAID representative to the European Union, USAID senior development adviser at the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and many years as a USAID senior foreign service officer in Senegal, DRC-Congo, Tanzania and Eritrea, Bill worked on the front lines of U.S. foreign assistance efforts.

Gwynne Zodrow is a technical manager on the Strategic Management and Performance Improvement team at MSI. As a technical manager, Zodrow provides M&E support to multiple clients in a variety of sectors, including health, agriculture, education and food safety. Zodrow’s technical support includes the implementation of result-based management components, which includes facilitation of workshops and the overall development of strategic management tools, such as results framework, indicators and performance monitoring plans. In addition, she has experience in managing, designing, developing tools, and collecting and analyzing data for impact and performance evaluations.

Gyan Chandra Acharya is the United Nations under-secretary general and high representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. He is an active member of the Broadband Commission and his office has spearheaded the establishment of the new Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries.

Habib Ur Rehman Mayar is deputy general secretary of the g7+ Secretariat. The g7+ group is a voluntary association of the world’s poorest countries affected by conflict and fragility. He was head of aid coordination at the Ministry of Finance, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, before joining the g7+ Secretariat.

Habib Ur Rehman Mayar is deputy general secretary of the g7+ Secretariat based in Dili, Timor-Leste. He has served in the Secretariat since 2013 and leads on policy and advocacy for better engagement in fragile situation. He advises the chair of g7+ on matters concerning peacebuilding and statebuilding and at WB/IMF, UN, IDPS (International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding), and other related international forums to provide g7+ perspective on the related issues.

Dr. Hagen Weissapfel is the director of Education and Customer Services for Global Access to Care at Siemens Healthineers. With more than a decade of experience implementing capacity-building projects and innovative business models, he is dedicated to expanding health care solutions in underserved regions. Prior to his current role, he served as head of customer service across multiple regions in Asia, driving advanced service offerings and bridging workforce shortages. He is passionate about forging partnerships to enhance care delivery and improve patient outcomes.

Hagos Godefay has served as the head of the Bureau of Health in Tigray, Ethiopia, for 10 years. He completed his doctorate degree at Sweden's Umeå University and has several publications on maternal health. His tenure at Tigray's Bureau of Health has focused on strengthening the region’s health system, with an emphasis on improving maternal and child health.

Hajir Maalim is regional director for the Horn of Africa and eastern Africa at Action Against Hunger.

Håkan Björkman is the manager of UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since 2010. Previously he served 13 years in Southeast Asia as UNDP’s country director in Indonesia, deputy resident representative in Thailand and assistant resident representative in Laos, as well as five years as researcher and writer for UNDP’s Human Development Report in New York. He is a Swedish national with degrees from Leeds University and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.