Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu

Dr Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu (Ph.D.) Founder & Executive Director

The African Institute for Development Policy-AFIDEP. Under his leadership, AFIDEP has grown to a respected continent-wide research and policy institut

Dr Eliya Msiyaphazi Zulu is the Executive Director and founder of the African Institute for Development Policy-AFIDEP. Under his leadership, AFIDEP has grown to a respected continent-wide research and policy institute. In July this year, the UN awarded AFIDEP the 2023 United Nations Population Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to population and reproductive health issues and solutions in Africa. Dr Zulu has had a distinguished career as a multi-talented development practitioner with over 25 years of experience leading national and multi-country programmes that have informed the development and evaluation of socio-economic policies in at least 25 African countries. He is a multi-disciplinary development scholar with over 80 peer-reviewed published journal articles and research reports on various development issues. He has served on international development and scientific panels as vice president and Union for African Population Studies president. He was a member of the advisory committee for the World Bank’s programme on the Demographic Dividend in Africa, the African Union Steering Committee on the Demographic Dividend; the Family Planning 2020 Monitoring and Accountability Working Group, the WHO’s expert groups on hormonal contraceptives and adolescent sexual and reproductive health; and the UK Royal Society’s Population Group. Dr Zulu has been Africa’s leading expert and voice on the Demographic Dividend since 2010, and he has made keynote addresses on the topic in various high-level meetings. These include; the joint meeting of Ministers of Finance and development planning in Abidjan in 2013, and the U.N. General Assembly in 2015 and 2016.