Hany Besada

• Lead strategic research and policy engagement on Canada’s international development and foreign policy positioning within a shifting global order.
• Provide expert advice on the intersection of international assistance and geostrategic trends, ensuring Canada’s development policy aligns with broader foreign policy, economic security, and sustainability objectives.
• Contribute to Canada’s positions in multilateral fora, including the G7, UN, and OECD-DAC, by preparing analytical briefings and policy notes on global development finance, triangular cooperation, and international aid architecture reform.
• Support internal policy coherence on climate-related programming, just energy transitions, and critical minerals governance, advising on how Canada can leverage its comparative advantages in diplomacy, trade, and development finance.

• Key drafter of the Government of Canada's Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) 2025 Progress Report, ensuring alignment with Canada’s international commitments on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Impact: Strengthened Canada’s environmental policy coherence and provided a strategic framework to measure sustainability progress across federal agencies.

• Led the technical research portfolio on digital economy, South-South trade, and investments, ESG programming, shaping the global policy discourse on sustainable development through South-South Cooperation.
• Impact: Developed knowledge-sharing platforms that influenced UN policymaking and SSC strategies across member states.
• Managed diverse country-level programs on technical capacity development and women’s empowerment, ensuring gender-sensitive policy recommendations that improved economic opportunities for women in Southern economies.
• Impact: Successfully integrated gender-based policy recommendations that improved economic opportunities for women in Southern economies.
• Guided the strategic planning and scoping process for multiple UNOSSC reports on different development topics pertaining to South-South Cooperation, such as the United Nations Secretary General's Independent Report on South-South and Triangular Cooperation, influencing global development policy debates.
• Impact: Increased awareness and funding for SSC programs from donor agencies and multilateral institutions.
• Formulated effective strategies for mobilizing financial and non-financial resources, such as research fellowships and personnel secondments.
• Managed diverse country-level programs, including technical capacity development, women's empowerment, and SDG programming.
• Impact: Strengthened institutional capacity by equipping policymakers and stakeholders with skills to implement sustainable development initiatives, resulting in greater gender inclusivity, improved policy frameworks, and measurable progress toward national SDG targets across multiple countries.

• Established GemFair project under De Beers, using blockchain technology to create a secure and transparent diamond supply chain.
• Impact: Improved ethical sourcing and provided artisanal miners with fair market access, reducing conflict-related financing while improving living standards in artisanal and small-scale mining communities across West and Central Africa.
• Managed DDI’s Maendeleo Diamonds Standards Program, which formalized artisanal mining and improved sustainability practices.
• Impact: Reduced illegal mining activities and increased local revenues for mining communities in Africa.
• Worked closely with Sierra Leone's national and sub-national governments, along with the Mano River Union governments, to contribute to the development of artisanal mining policy as part of the Kimberley Process Regional Approach.
• Impact: Strengthened regulatory frameworks and enforcement mechanisms, leading to enhanced formalization of artisanal mining, improved traceability of diamonds, and a reduction in conflict-related minerals within the region.
• Developed and implemented HR policies and practices, created job descriptions and work plans for program staff.
• Impact: Established a structured and efficient human resource framework that improved staff performance, streamlined recruitment processes, and enhanced overall organizational effectiveness.

• Led research on governance of natural resources in East and Horn of Africa, analyzing sustainability challenges in land water, energy sectors.
• Impact: Developed a sustainability assessment tool for government officials and business leaders to inform policy decisions.
• Investigated the intersection of African food, water, energy security, designing integrated policy solutions for sustainable growth.
• Impact: Contributed to regional policymaking, fostering food security and climate resilience strategies in fragile economies.

• Spearheaded a multi-year consortium on mineral beneficiation, local content, and regional value addition, strengthening African countries’ capacity for resource governance.
• Impact: Published a series of policy report that provided strategic policy recommendations which improved revenue generation and economic diversification in resource-rich states.
• Developed ESG policy frameworks for Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania, ensuring compliance with international good practices.
• Impact: Enhanced the regulatory environment, reducing environmental degradation and increasing foreign investment in sustainable mining.
• Established a comprehensive research strategy methods aimed at identifying good corporate practices and capturing industry experiences related to strengthening mineral and hydrocarbon value chains and ESG practices.
• Impact: Provided data-driven insights that improved corporate ESG compliance, enhanced sustainable resource management policies, and guided industry leaders in adopting good practices for responsible mineral and hydrocarbon value chain development.

• Established and implemented the AMDC's Mineral Linkages, promoting local content growth and regional supply chain integration.
• Impact: Strengthened Africa’s mineral sector by increasing value-added processing and economic diversification.
• Developed policies aligned with the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) for sustainable resource management, working with multiple African governments.
• Impact: Ensured environmentally responsibly mining practices, reducing social conflicts linked to resource extraction.
• Guided African governments in integrating AMV's linkages and diversification pillars into their Country Mining Visions, while promoting energy policy reforms that bolstered environmental and sustainability measures across member states.
• Impact: Strengthened national mining policies, leading to increased local beneficiation, enhanced value addition, and improved environmental sustainability in extractive industries across multiple African countries.
• Designed capacity development programs that empowered African governments with tools such as mineral and hydrocarbon policy guidelines to ensure broad-based sustainable development.
• Impact: Enhanced policymakers' ability to implement inclusive, sustainable resource management strategies, improving governance and economic resilience in resource-rich African states.
• Published a series of technical policy reports covering topics such as fiscal regimes, economic diversification, linkage promotion, and regional mineral and hydrocarbon value chains across Africa.
• Impact: Provided actionable insights that informed policy reforms, investment decisions, and regulatory frameworks, directly influencing sustainable economic growth in Africa’s extractive sector.

• Led research on private sector engagement in Africa’s extractive industries, focusing on sustainable mining governance under the Africa Mining Vision (AMV).
• Impact: Informed African policymakers on good practices enhanced corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strengthened ESG.
• Supported the implementation and evaluation of Mining Community Development Agreements in Sierra Leone, established by African regional governments and donors.
• Impact: Supported the implementation and evaluation of Mining Community Development Agreements, established by African regional governments, donors and private sector actors.

• Co-led a multi-year $733,000 research initiative on the Gulf’s role in Sub-Saharan Africa’s resource governance, evaluating investment risks and sustainability strategies.
• Impact: Provided economic risk analysis that guided Gulf investors on sustainable foreign direct investment (FDI) practices in Africa.
• Advised Qatari and African governments on economic diversification strategies in energy and resource sectors, ensuring responsible investment frameworks.
• Impact: Helped design FDI policies that mitigated socio-economic risks and enhanced regional economic stability.
• Produced economic, political, and security risk analysis reports for African governments to enhance foreign investment management strategies with a focus on maintaining political stability and preventing conflicts.
• Impact: Provided data-driven policy recommendations that improved investment climate resilience, reduced geopolitical risks, and enhanced government capacity to attract sustainable foreign direct investments while mitigating conflict-related financial instability.

• Led the HLP Secretariat's research on sustainable energy, climate change, and resource governance, shaping key sections of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
• Impact: Influenced the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in environmental sustainability and governance.
• Drafted, published, reviewed and edited of HLP Secretariat's background papers.
• Provided policy analysis for the SDG consultation process, integrating insights from open national and thematic discussions.
• Impact: Helped align global policy frameworks with the realities of Southern economies, increasing SDG adoption rates.

• Directed NSI’s interdisciplinary GNR program, researching corporate ESG compliance, conflict minerals, and gender-inclusive policies in the extractive sector.
• Impact: Developed regulatory guidelines that improved corporate accountability and conflict prevention measures in mining economies.
• Administered research efforts to examine the regulatory landscape surrounding petroleum industry in several African states with a goal of promoting environmental and social governance (ESG) commitments.
• Strengthened NSI’s flagship publication, the Canadian International Development Report (CIDR), providing policy-relevant insights on global development trends.
• Impact: Increased CIDR’s influence among Canadian policymakers and international donors, securing greater funding for governance programs.
• Delivered expert analysis on African mining and hydrocarbon sectors, advising the Government of Canada and relevant Canadian mining firms on specific trends and socio-economic governance matters.

• Led successful efforts to secure funding for and oversee a $10 million research initiative examining how climate change impacts Africa's health challenges, migration patterns, food security, conflict prevention/peacebuilding, sustainable energy solutions and mineral governance.
• Impact: The initiative directly influenced policy decisions in African Ministries of Environment and donor programming, leading to more resilient climate adaptation strategies and better-targeted international funding.
• Established and led the HSG program to foster discussions and enhance competency in key global health and social topics.
• Impact: Provided a platform for knowledge exchange that strengthened policy formulation, improved public health governance, and enhanced global collaboration on sustainable development issues.
• Developed and oversaw the Africa portal, an online forum dedicated to exchanging insights on governance-related matters impacting Africa.
• Impact: Increased accessibility to policy research and best practices for African policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders, strengthening governance frameworks across multiple sectors.

· Analyzed the South African automotive industry to identify areas for improvement in terms of labor issues, production costs, and export facilitation. Conducted policy research to strengthen this economic sector.

· Informed the Minister about the regulatory and policy frameworks impacting South Africa's automotive sector.

· Provided policy recommendations and focused intervention practices to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic automotive sector.

· Authored comprehensive policy reports, journal articles, and opinion pieces regarding trade opportunities, investment promotion, and facilitation in Africa for the purpose of informing and guiding South African Government and private sector investments on the continent.

· Created an extensive business database to facilitate government-to-business networking across multiple countries.