Veyrl Adell

Veyrl Adell is a gender and youth inclusion economist with over 25 years’ experience in designing and leading implementation of gender and youth inclusive business models and strategies. She has worked across Africa leading economic and social empowerment for women, and youth across various sectors such as agriculture, finance, trade, sustainable energy, education, health, policy, climate resilience amongst others. She has held several regional positions and worked from policy to grassroots levels providing evidence-based information and training to influence global, regional, national, and local policies and practices on gender, women, and youth inclusion. Her experience in market systems development and design started in 2013 when she was contracted to support the Kenya Markets Trust in the design of their market systems interventions across 7 sectors. She has since used the skills as a consultant in leading several designs and overseeing implementation of various projects at regional, cross continent, national and community level. Some of the projects she has successfully led include – design of digital payment systems for farmers in Bangladesh (under feed the future; facilitated mobile network operators to adapt a systemic approach in delivery of financial services to women and in community savings groups to name a few. She is currently working part time as a Gender Lead with Trade Forward Southern African where she has been instrumental in the design of an inclusive export trade model for women in SACU and Mozambique, providing leadership in market systems approach to export trade opportunities for women in agriculture, crafts, renewable energy, and cosmetics. She has held several consulting and global advisory roles on gender and market systems with various bilateral funding agencies. At regional level she has worked with Regional Economic Communities in East, Southern Africa, and Western Africa to influence women and youth inclusion within institutional operating frameworks. She also led a peer reviewed gender cost benefit analysis of the East African Community’s lack of a Gender Bill, leading to a report which was adopted by the East African Legislative Assembly. Other regional assignments include, but not limited to providing inclusive financial advisory services for women in agriculture, SMEs, and savings groups. She has promoted inclusion of women in energy, through development of a market systems strategy and action plan for inclusion of women in the renewable energy and energy efficiency value chain and led an analysis which was validated for a 5-year action planning by members of the SADC and EAC. She has excellent relations and influencing skills and has worked with several Ministries of Finance and central banks across Africa, promoting inclusive financing for women in agriculture and micro/small enterprises. In 2017 she led the facilitation of development of a gender strategy for the Central Bank of Zambia, a tool which has been used to hold financial service providers accountable for inclusive service delivery and operations. In 2018 she led Ministries of Finance and Gender in defining their gender commitments to financial inclusion against the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in Zambia and facilitated the Guarantee Credit Scheme of Zambia to design a program for effective support of financial services access and usage by women owned small business enterprises. These approaches adapted by other SADC countries a SADC Gender Financial inclusion forum of March 2019, where she was privileged to share a platform with Her Excellency Mme. Graca Machel – the Chairperson of the Graca Machel Trust and the Deputy Governor Administration of Bank of Zambia, who is also the current chair of the committee on Gender at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. She has worked in various regional positions designing and facilitating integrated market systems and gender analytical frameworks to support institutional capacity building. She facilitated operationalizing of gender in several Government Departments/Ministries, United Nations Organisations, World Bank Initiatives, Private Foundation Operations as well as within several Civil Society organisations.