Dave Spooner, Manchester
Dave Spooner is the co-Director of GLI. He has twenty-five years of experience in research, education and design and management of development projects in the informal economy, including extensive work with organisations of transport workers, street vendors and waste recyclers in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. He has designed and managed national, regional and international research and development projects, including design and coordination of the ITF Informal Transport Workers Project in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the subsequent projects in Nairobi, Dakar and Kampala. Dave has a background in international workers’ education, having been General Secretary of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations in the 1990s, and was a Board Member and subsequently Operations Director of Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing (WIEGO) prior to co-founding the GLI 2010. He is also an accredited project and programme evaluator with the ILO.
Georgia Montague-Nelson, Manchester
Georgia Montague-Nelson is the co-Director of GLI. With a background in international relations and human rights, she specialises in gender equality, workers’ and human rights, environmental issues, capacity-building and international trade union development. Since joining GLI Manchester full-time in January 2019, she has been responsible for research and education work on trade union engagement with informal workers, the livelihoods, organisation and issues of the informal workforce and development of education materials and programmes on labour market issues. She leads the work around the climate crisis and gender and equalities and has been responsible for the development of several education and policy materials including the IUF Gender Equality Guide, the Training Toolkit on ILO Convention C190, the IUF Guide on Tackling the Climate Crisis in Intensive Livestock Production, the PSI Guide on the Rebuilding the Social Organisation of Care and several pieces of work with the ITF.
Jess Whelligan, London
Jess Whelligan was a full-time staff member of GLI in 2013-17, delivering education and research programmes with informal transport workers’ organisations in Nairobi, Kampala, Kathmandu, Phnom Penh, and Manila. A co-Director of GLI Manchester, she is now on sabbatical and is a PhD candidate studying the impact of transport infrastructure programmes on the informal transport workforce in Mexico City under an ESRC Collaborative Studentship at SOAS, University of London, in partnership with the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
John Mark Mwanika, Uganda
John Mark Mwanika is the Programmes Officer for the Amalgamated Transport & General Workers Union (ATGWU) in Uganda and Chair of the Urban Transport Committee of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). He has many years’ experience of research, education and organising in the national and international transport industry, particularly in informal transport, including responsibility for the GLI ‘mentor union’ programme in East Africa. He was the GLI Research Coordinator for the Nairobi BRT Labour Impact Assessment, the Assessment of the Market Structure of the Paratransit Industry in Kampala and the Abidjan BRT Labour Impact Assessment.
Daniel Edmonds, Manchester
Daniel Edmonds is a historical researcher and educator. After completing his PhD at the University of Manchester, since 2019 he has worked with GLI Manchester developing the GLI History Project. This has included the development of a text on the history of the international trade union movement, and programmes and workshops for trade unionists. He has written on the impact of international structures, movements, and connections for different wings of the labour movement, with a particular interest in the relationship between Marxist organisations and anti-colonial campaigns. He has also worked on public history projects for a range of organisations – from museums and archives to universities and NGO’s – leading workshops and events for groups from a wide range of backgrounds.
Patrick Kane, Colombia
Patrick Kane is a researcher, activist and development practitioner with extensive experience of working with social movements and trade unions in the Global South. Patrick holds a PhD from the University of Sussex, and has published research on social movements, trade unions, human rights and popular struggles in Colombia. He has been engaged in international solidarity work with trade unions and social movements in southwest Colombia for over fifteen years. Patrick worked as a researcher on the ‘Organising Informal Workers’ project undertaken with the ITF, co-writing the publication ‘Organising Informal Transport Workers – A Trade Union Guide’. He is driven by a passionate commitment to internationalism and solidarity, and firmly believes that activists in the Global South should be at the forefront of the international struggle for social justice.
Joe Sutcliffe, London
Joe Sutcliffe is a researcher and development practitioner on workers’ rights in the Global South. He is a committed trade unionist and internationalist with extensive experience leading research and development cooperation programmes with trade unions and civil society organisations across South and Southeast Asia. He specialises in workers’ rights in global supply chains, the informal economy, and gender justice in the world of work. He led GLI’s study on the impact of EU development cooperation, trade and investment on workers in the informal economy for CONCORD Europe and was a contributing researcher on the ‘Organising Informal Workers’ project with the ITF.
Gráinne Charlton, Marseille
Gráinne Charlton is a feminist researcher and organiser based in Marseille. They hold a MSc in Labour, Social Movements and Development from SOAS University of London and have published and co-authored articles on gender, precarity, work, and transnational solidarities. They have 10 years of experience working with/in collectives, campaigns, renter and trade unions across Europe and the NAWA region. Currently Gráinne is involved in local anti-prison collectives and a queer community archive in Marseille. At the GLI, Gráinne has worked on multiple projects, including case studies on just transition at work across the UK for the TUC and the Abidjan BRT Labour Impact Assessment for the ITF.
Informal Transport Team
Sibailly Douhoure, Côte d’Ivoire
Sibailly Douhoure is a former West Africa Regional Director for Union Network International (UNI), the international trade union federation, and subsequently Africa and Asia Coordinator for StreetNet International, the international federation of street vendor and market trader associations and unions. He is a highly experienced workers’ educator and project manager with extensive knowledge of Abidjan informal workers’ organisations. He is currently the Fieldwork Coordinator for the Abidjan BRT Labour Impact Assessment.
Dr Armand Djah, Côte d’Ivoire
Dr Armand Djah is Assistant Professor at Allassane Ouattara University, with expertise in urban planning, sustainable development and environmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa, and a specialist in digital mapping and statistical data processing tools. Dr Djah is currently the data analyst for the Abidjan BRT Labour Impact Assessment.
Erick Manga, Kenya
Erick Manga is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Nairobi University, specialising in transportation. He was responsible for the research survey methodology and data analysis in the Nairobi BRT Labour Impact Assessment and the Assessment of the Market Structure of the Paratransit Industry in Kampala and was research methods advisor to the Dakar research team. Erick is also active in the Kenya Transport Research Network (KTRN), established by IDS in 2016.
Lydia Boateng-Pobee, Ghana
Lydia Boateng-Pobee is a Masters graduate in Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, and development practitioner with over 10 years’ experience, including support to WIEGO in organising surveys among informal economy workers. She has extensive experience in the design, administration and reporting of questionnaire surveys among informal workers, planning and managing workshops and seminars, and facilitating focus group discussions and stakeholder meetings. She has worked with the leadership of numerous informal workers’ associations.
Dr Owusu Boampong, Ghana
Dr Owusu Boampong is a Research Fellow at the School for Development Studies (SDS) at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, specialising in the informal economy and small enterprise development. He has more than fifteen years research experience on workers in the informal economy, including transport, waste-recycling and waste management. He is currently participating in WIEGO’s Global Crisis Study on the impact of COVID on the livelihoods of Informal Workers in Accra using remote/contactless research methods.
Prof. Papa Sakho, Senegal
Prof. Papa Sakho, Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar. His work focuses on African cities, urban mobility and transport in Africa. Since 2005, has participated in several international research projects on migration between Africa and Europe as leader of the Senegal research team. Prof. Sakho leads the research team on the Dakar BRT Labour Impact Assessment project.
Malick Diop, Senegal
Malick Diop is a highly experienced trade unionist and workers’ education practitioner with extensive experience in Dakar’s informal transport industry. He is the field research coordinator on the Dakar BRT Labour Impact Assessment project.
Natamba Shadrack, Uganda
Natamba Shadrack is Lecturer in Development Studies and Foundation Studies at Kyambogo University, Kampala. He is an experienced researcher in the informal economy, including the boda-boda motorcycle taxi industry. Natamba was responsible for survey data management and analysis in the Assessment of the Market Structure of the Paratransit Industry in Kampala.