Regional Trustees


Catherine Wanjohi was IACD’s Country Correspondent for Kenya and was appointed to the Board in 2018, as our third Board member and Trustee for Sub-Saharan Africa. Catherine is a co-founder and current CEO of Life Bloom Services International in Kenya. She has over 14 years experience supporting women and girls trapped in prostitution, poverty and violence related livelihoods towards social-economic transformed lives. She is a consultant in Transformative leadership coaching and mentoring, in the field of Corporate Governance and Community Development. Catherine is an ambassador with Safaricom Foundation World of Difference and a Commonwealth Foundation Peer Mentor  for Civil Society Leadership.


Tony Ssembatya -Kimbowa is a co-optee of the IACD to the UN in New York and a regional trustee for Sub-Saharan Africa. He works for the UN and is a seasoned academic. He holds a PhD in International Relations and Security from Potsdam Germany, and his research interests include Citizenship, Statelessness and Post Conflict Reconstruction. He has previously studied at ASH Berlin and Geneva School of Diplomacy with a focus on International and multilateral Organizations. He founded the Hope for Afrika education Initiative in Germany and Uganda https://hopeforafrika-kirabo.de/

He is a recipient of the CDS Ted Bradshaw Award, alumnus of the Clinton Global Initiative-CGI and recipient of the German (FNF) Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur Die Freiheit Scholarship (Freedom Foundation). UNGEI-United Nations Girls´ Education Initiative, activist, and promoter.


Daniel Muia is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Kenyatta University. His academic and research interests are Community Development and Empowerment processes:- community mobilization, development and empowerment, Human/child rights based development, Sustainable development, and governance processes. He is a trained gender trainer and undertakes gender mainstreaming and empowerment advocacy work. He has participated in community development programme/project evaluations both within and outside Kenya for national and international agencies. He has done research and published book chapters and journal articles.  Daniel is the current chairman of the Association of Community Development Practitioners-Kenya, the Kenyan network of community development professionals.

muia.daniel@ku.ac.ke or drdmmuia@gmaol.com


Dr Abdul Hamidu Abdullahi is senior lecturer with the Department of Local Government and Development Studies, Faculty of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Kaduna State. Nigeria. Presently, his teaching and research work is on Community Development, Public Policy, Local Governance Research Methodology and Gender studies.

His involvement in community development project include been an Assistant Research Fellow at Center for Democratic Development Research and Training, (CEDDERT) and a producer of the radio program.

His volunteerism include active membership of the following: Funtua Community College of Health Sciences and Technology; Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable Persons, Zaria; The Electoral College of Nigeria; Community Development Charter (CDC) and the Ward Integrity Companion (WIC) of my Ward; Network of Society against Child Trafficking Abuse and Labour (NACTAL); the West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA) and a member of International Association of Community Development (IACD) Scotland, Nigeria.


Janine Ward qualified as a  Social  Worker  and  has  worked  for  35 years  in  asset-based  community  development (ABCD),    participatory    capacity    building,    enterprise development  and  income  generation,  HIV  &  AIDS  education and  competence,  project  management  and  fundraising.  Her ‘hands-on’ experience   is    derived    largely    from    working independently for 12 years in rural Swaziland, establishing an NGO and developing sustainable community capacity-building programmes.

She is also a registered Trainer in:

•           Asset-based Citizen-led Development (ABCD)

•           Micro MBA

•           CABSA’s Channels of Hope HIV Facilitation

•           It Takes Courage! Youth Curriculum

•           Greenlight monitoring & evaluation tool

•           SEED Business Development Support BDS+ UNDP programme

Other work experience was  gained  working  with  Oxfam  GB,  Ziphakamise,  SOS  Children’s Villages, Turn the tide 4 children and Jewels of Hope. Within all these posts, her strength has been in developing  guidelines,  building  teams,  developing  training materials,  facilitating   participatory   training  and developing capacity within communities.

Janine now works independently and has relocated to the beautiful Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. Her vision is to Spark Personal And Community Essence. She believes that everyone has within them the potential to do things for themselves, but because of life circumstances or environmental, political or social pressures and injustices, it can be challenging to realize this potential. Her passion is to come alongside and spark that potential into life, and support individuals or groups until they are strengthened to continue on their own.


There is a long tradition of support for community development in Sub Saharan Africa going back six decades, both indigenous and through international development aid.  We have many members in Africa, building upon our previous conferences in South Africa and Cameroons and the development work our Past President from Kenya and Vice President from Nigeria. It is now IACD’s largest growing region. In 2005 together with African partners, we issued the  Yaounde Declaration. This set out our action priorities for supporting community development across Sub Saharan Africa. There are many other community development type networks and fora in Sub Saharan Africa and we are keen to share their contacts and their work.  Since 2018 we have appointed  Country Correspondents for several African countries, all of whom are actively involved in their national CD associations. In 2018 we published a special Africa issue of our magazine Practice Insights.

Please contact our Regional Trustees for Sub Saharan Africa for further information.