Oley Dibba-Wadda is a strategic analyst and expert in international development policy and programming, particularly on education and gender equality in Africa.
She is the Founder, President and CEO of the Gam Africa Institute (GAIL) and has led multicultural and multidisciplinary Pan African development organisations.
The Gam African Institute of Leadership (GAIL) is a not-for-profit charity leadership institution established in 2017 to provide and equip African youths with the necessary life, soft and emotional skills to grow and transform into future leaders. The GAIL’s vision seeks to ensure confident and empowered high quality ethical leaders with constructive and critical competencies and innovative life skills and knowledge, for accelerated economic and sustainable development in Africa is assured.
Its mission aims to provide pathways that inspire and motivate Africa’s youth for growth and transformation to achieve their highest potential. The objectives of the GAIL are to instill and empower African values and principles to youths through soft and emotional life skills programming in communications, thinking and problem-solving, interpersonal and self-directional skills and so on.
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Dibba-Wadda was the Director for Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development at the African Development Bank. Prior, she led the following organisations in various capacities as: Executive Secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), Executive Director of Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS) and Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). Similarly, she worked with Oxfam GB in the UK as Global Programme and Policy Adviser and has held senior management and advisory roles such as Project Manager, Country Director and Regional Coordinator in other international organisations including Commonwealth Education Fund, Concern Universal and the European Development Fund.
Wadda has raised and managed multi-million dollars budgets through multilateral and bilateral cooperation agencies, foundations, governments and private individuals and successfully cultivated and nurtured strategic partnerships.
Oley is currently the Chair of the Board of the Gam Africa Institute for Leadership (GAIL) and also the Chair of the Advisory Council for Teach for All Africa. She also sits on several Advisory Boards and is a Global Ambassador for 10X10 and Concern Universal. She was also Chair of the Board of Trustees for Concern Universal. She has been invited to speak as panelist, keynote and guest speaker on numerous high level international forums globally.
She is the author of the book titled, “Memoirs of An African Woman on a Mission” and was awarded “Inspiring Woman of Excellence” in The Gambia in 2012, and “Women Leadership Award” in Mauritius in 2013. In 2017, she was one of the New African Woman Forum Award nominees in Education.
