INEE Country Focal Points

world mapINEE Country Focal Points (CFPs) are key reference persons at country level, tasked to support networking and communication, particularly through the facilitation of information exchange among INEE members. Read more about these roles in the Terms of Reference document

CFPs have a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise, and have demonstrated a commitment to education in emergencies work, and to promoting the values, priorities, and activities of INEE. CFPs represent the geographic and linguistic diversity of the broader network. 

Continue below to read about the new INEE Country Focal Points, as well as details about their roles, ways to engage with them, the selection process, and more about the overall CFP initiative.


K. M. Enamul Hoque - Bangladesh

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Enamul Hoque

K. M. Enamul Hoque is the INEE Country Focal Point for Bangladesh. Enamul has been a humanitarian worker since 2012, and has over 28 years of development experience, which includes campaigning, research, and capacity building. He is engaged in influencing policy and practice change discourse for economic, social, and cultural rights and development, including the right to education and education in emergencies. His engagement with the Education Watch, Community Education Watch, Youth-led action Research, different thematic groups, and teachers’ associations contributed to SDG 4. He is also active in regional and global platforms in education. Enamul is Deputy Director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), a national coalition for education in Bangladesh. In this role, he collaborates with various stakeholders, including NGOs, civil society, researchers, think tanks, teachers’ associations, journalists, local communities, and youth groups. In 1990, he graduated from the University of Dhaka with a Masters in Management, and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in NGO Leadership and Management from the University of Vermont’s School of International Training. He also took part in the Korean Human Rights Institution’s leadership training and TOT on “Empower Leadership on SDGs and Human Rights.” Enamul is a Bangladeshi and speaks Bangla and English.

Email: enamul.hoque@inee.org

 

Martin Villarroel García - Bolivia

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Martin Villarroel García - BoliviaMartin is the INEE Country Focal Point for Bolivia. He is an Agronomist Engineer with a diploma in higher education and in agroecology. Currently, he is an international consultant in environmental management, disaster risk reduction management, and humanitarian standards. He is also a professor at both Universidad Católica Boliviana and Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS). Since 2002, Martin has been a leader in the dissemination and training of trainers on Sphere Standards, INEE Minimum Standards, and Child Protection in Emergencies in 18 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2003, he is the Bolivian Focal Point of the Sphere Network and contributes to the application of the Principles of Protection and the Core Humanitarian Standards in projects related to: safe schools, feedback and complaint mechanisms, attention to vulnerable groups, and containment and response to COVID-19. Previously, Martin was the Director of the Agro-bioenergy Assistance Program to Farmers (Bolivia); Regional Emergency Coordinator for Save the Children Canada in which he promoted preparedness, response, and recovery actions in 12 countries of the LAC Region; Consultant on new business development for the Christian Children's Fund of Canada (Paraguay) and Coordinator of the "Safe Educational Communities" Project for ADRA Argentina. Martin is Bolivian and speaks Spanish, Quechua, Portuguese and English.

Email: martin.villarroel@inee.org

 

Fátima Gonçalves Cavalcante - Brazil

Term: April 2023- February 2024

Francisca Santana dos Santos - BrazilFátima Gonçalves Cavalcante is the INEE Country Focal Point for Brazil. She has a Master’s degree in psychology and sociocultural practices, as well as a Doctorate and post-graduate degrees in public health and social anthropology. For more than three decades, she dedicated herself to the study and accompaniment of children, adolescents, and families, some of whom also have disabilities and mental disorders. For the first 14 years, Fátima worked in the area of mental health, initially as a clinical psychologist and then later as a student counselor and coordinator of an internship and residency program in mental health, and then as director of a research center within a public psychiatric hospital. As she advanced in her studies, she worked as a researcher and university professor. In the past 18 years, Fátima worked as a professor in the psychology undergraduate program and in the Master's and Doctorate programs at the Veiga de Almeida University and in a research center called the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Since 2019, following retirement, she has been active in supporting the voluntary work of the Fraternity - International Humanitarian Missions (FMHI), specifically in the humanitarian response after environmental disasters in Brumadinho/Minas Gerais and Bahia/Brazil and in shelters for Venezuelan refugees in Roraima/Brazil. She started to collaborate as a Focal Point for the Education Intervention Sector in Emergency Situations and Humanitarian Responses. Fátima is fluent in Portuguese and English and also understands Spanish.

Email: fatima.cavalcante@inee.org

 

Bana Barka - Cameroon

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Bana Barka - CameroonBana is the INEE Country Focal Point for Cameroon. Bana Barka is a graduate of the Université de Ngaoundéré and holds a PhD in African literature. Author of half a dozen articles on Cameroonian literature, he is also interested in issues related to education in emergency situations. As a consultant, he has conducted numerous investigations on behalf of international organizations, notably on the identification of barriers that limit refugees' access to education and on the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the prevention of violent extremism. Member of the Centre d’Études et de Recherche en Paix, Sécurité et Intégration (CERPSI) and Coordinator of the Nexus Peace & Education Association, he has devoted several studies to the Koranic school and the difficulties of adaptation of this institution in the states of the Lake Chad Basin. Bana is currently a lecturer at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Maroua and a literature enthusiast, and is also active in the field of educational sciences: to this end, he is pursuing a Master's degree in Peace and Security, with a dissertation focused on security in crises situations and its impact on education in the Far North region. Bana is Cameroonian and speaks Msir and French.

Email: bana.barka@inee.org

 

Jonas Habimana Seruvugo - Democratic Republic of Congo

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Jonas Habimana Seruvugo - Democratic Republic of CongoJonas the INEE Country Focal Point for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He a Bachelor's degree in leadership and management in the humanitarian sector with Bioforce. Jonas has more than 12 years of experience in the humanitarian sector in the ares of WASH, education, and child protection. He has worked for various organizations including Christian Aid, Save the Children, World Vision, Tear Fund, Solidarités Internationale, and MSF. Jonas is also the DRC focal point for Sphere and a member of the Executive Committee of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. Since 2017, he started to promote the INEE Minimum Standards through the Education cluster, trainings, and via the organization of national-level meetings in DRC. Jonas works closely with many stakeholders in the humanitarian sector, including UN agencies, INGOs, national NGOs, and state authorities. Jonas is Congolese and speaks French and English.

Email: jonas.habimana@inee.org


Talot Bertrand - Haiti

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Talot Bertrand - HaitiTalot is the INEE Country Focal Point for Haiti. He is a trainer of trainers of the INEE Minimum Standards. He is an Agricultural Engineer and Specialist in Environmental Education. In South Korea, he studied communication and information management for emergency situations involving diseases. He was awarded a scholarship to study biodiversity conservation and environmental protection as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program of the U.S. Department of State. He worked as Head of Planning and Resource Mobilization in the Directorate for Civil Protection, where he served as Focal Point for the World Food Program and the Ministry of Public Health. He also worked for other institutions such as the Ministry of Agriculture, PAHO-WHO and the National Agency of Protected Areas of the Ministry of Environment. Since 2009, he has been campaigning for education and building public awareness on disaster risk management and biodiversity conservation. Talot is Haitian and speaks French, Creole and English.

Email: talot.bertrand@inee.org

 

Dr. Rina "Okta" Suryani Oktari - Indonesia

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Dr. Rina "Okta" Suryani Oktari - IndonesiaDr. Rina "Okta" Suryani Oktari is the INEE Country Focal Point for Indonesia. She has been engaged in the humanitarian sector since she worked in response and recovery after the 2004 tsunami in Aceh. She is a Secretary of the Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI), a leading networking platform and knowledge hub for disaster and humanitarian actors in Indonesia. She is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala (USK) and teaches disaster studies. She is also the Disaster Education Research Cluster Coordinator at the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC). She earned her Doctoral Degree in Disaster Science from the Graduate School of Mathematics and Applied Science, USK. She is one of the Pan Asia Risk Reduction (PARR) Fellowship Program alumni at the International Environment and Disaster Management (IEDM) Laboratory, Kyoto University. In 2019, she was awarded the Young Scientist of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) worldwide. She is also a member of the expert reference group for the WHO Health Emergency and Disaster Management. She has more than fifteen years of experience in humanitarian and development issues, including with the United Nations, Islamic Relief, and the Australian Government's funded program called LOGICA2. Okta is Indonesian and speaks Bahasa Indonesia and English.

Email: rina.oktari@inee.org


Sahar Bani Mustafa - Jordan

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Sahar Bani Mustafa - JordanSahar is the INEE Country Focal Point for Jordan. She has been working in the humanitarian field for seven years, mainly focusing on education, child protection, and child poverty projects in emergency contexts. She has also provided technical guidance regarding livelihood aspects to conflict-affected families and supported processes of reintegration of children who fled from their homes to Jordan as a result of the Syrian crisis. In the last 3 years Sahar has moved to focus on professional development programs, worked in building the capacity of EiE practitioners in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Region. She also has a strong record of volunteering, supporting children in remote areas with educational activities. Sahar is a Jordanian and speaks Arabic and English.

Email: sahar.mustafa@inee.org

 


Loise Gichuhi - Kenya

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Loise Gichuhi - KenyaDr. Loise Gichuhi is the INEE Country Focal Point for Kenya. She is an economics of education and education in emergencies specialist, in addition to being a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi. She is the co-founder and thematic lead of education in emergencies at the university. Loise has extensive experience and expertise in education policy, planning and curriculum development; education in emergencies programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. She has recently consulted for COMESA, Equal Measures 2030/FAWE, Porticus-Africa, UNESCO IIEP and is currently consulting for INEE as well as for a 5 year Ministry of Education/World Bank project. Additionally, she works as an Education and Livelihoods Expert with a local NGO, Education Bridge-Africa, and has done community work in marginalized counties and in the informal settlement communities for over 2 decades. She is a member of various global and national advisory groups. Loise holds a PhD in Economics of Education (University of Nairobi) and a Master’s in Economics of Education (Kenyatta University). Loise is Kenyan and speaks Swahili and English.

Email: loise.gichuhi@inee.org


Hani Ahmed - Libya 

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Hani Ahmed - LibyaHani is the INEE Country Focal Point for Libya. He has a Bachelor’s degree in English, Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, and several professional certificates in teaching, research, and education, including an Education in Emergencies certificate. Hani has 10 years of work experience as an education practitioner. He is the head of Bader Development Organization, a leading education NGO in Libya, and he has held various other roles in education, including lecturer at the University of Tripoli, researcher, and consultant for INGO Affairs at the Ministry of Youth in Libya. Hani has worked on the development of several technical and educational training projects concerned with preparing youth for the labor market. For the past three years, Hani has extensively worked in EIE contexts in Libya, including with UNICEF Libya as an Education Trainer and Distance Education Specialist. Hani is Libyan and speaks Arabic and English.

Email: hani.ahmed@inee.org

 

Pedro Alejandro Tena Moreno - Mexico

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Pedro Alejandro Tena Moreno - MexicoPedro is the INEE Country Focal Point for Mexico. He comes from a family of teachers with basic and intermediate studies in public schools from Morelia, Michoacan. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the Escuela Normal Urbana Profr. J. Jesús Romero Flores. During his undergraduate studies he took on different jobs which included selling vacation packages, educational materials, and technological equipment focused on education. He worked in several public elementary schools as a teacher for groups based in rural, urban and marginalized contexts from 2008 to 2018, and as school director between 2017 and 2018. He completed a Master's degree in Basic Education at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional 161, where he co-authored the book "Quality and Evaluation. Philosophy of Education in the Future of Teaching". Since 2018, Pedro has worked as school supervisor for primary schools in the school zone of Quiroga, Michoacán, an area containing rural, urban, and indigenous (Purepecha) populations. Pedro is Mexican and speaks Spanish.

Email: pedro.tena@inee.org

 

 

Tosin Victoria Apiriola-Ajayi - Nigeria

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Tosin Victoria Apiriola-Ajayi - NigeriaTosin Victoria Apiriola-Ajayi, is the INEE Focal Point for Nigeria. She is a gender, DRR, and development expert contributing to initiatives in policy, advocacy, and data analysis for early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, sustainable energy access, health system strengthening, and community-based adaptation. She facilitates and coordinates civil society responses and interactions for result-oriented development dynamics across thematic areas to ensure access, inclusion, equity and justice. Tosin advocates, mobilizes, and sensitizes women, youth, and communities on various development programs for a sustainable future and, as such, her work has been geared mainly towards building capacities and resilience of youth, women, and communities. She is at present coordinating the European Union funded Views from Frontline (VfL) Project in 15 communities across 3 Southern and 2 Northern zones of Nigeria through the platform of WOYODEV with support from the Global Network on Disaster Risk Reduction (GNDR). She has contributed to regional policies and frameworks, including the ECOWAS Gender Strategy and Action Plan (GSAP) for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 1st Africa Biennial Report on DRR of the Africa Union. Tosin is Nigerian and speaks English and Yoruba.

Email: tosin.apiriola@inee.org


Mikel Egibar - Spain

Term: January 2023 - February 2024

Mikel Egibar - SpainMikel Egibar Goikoetxea is the INEE Country Focal Point in Spain. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Pedagogy from the University of the Basque Country and a Master's degree in Coordination of International Cooperation Projects from the Institut Bioforce in Lyon. He began his professional development in the field of social pedagogy and non-formal education and later focused on international cooperation educational programs. He has worked for several years in Latin America as head of education programs and country manager in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru with various non-governmental organizations. He is currently Head of Education in the Program Development area of the Educo Foundation. From Educo's headquarters in Barcelona, he guides the global strategic direction for education and accompanies the teams in the different countries where the Foundation works. Mikel is Spanish and lives in Barcelona, Spain. In addition to Spanish, he speaks Basque-Euskara, English and French.                

Email: puntofocal.espana@inee.org

 


Carmen América Affigne Oropeza - Venezuela

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Carmen América Affigne Oropeza - VenezuelaCarmen América is the INEE Country Focal Point for Venezuela. She is full professor and researcher at Centro de Investigación de la Comunicación at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and Universidad Simón Bolívar. With more than 20 years of teaching experience in undergraduate and graduate studies, she has taught and researched in the areas of academic writing and reading, Latin American literature, political and cultural history of the 19th century in Latin America. She has a doctorate in Latin American Studies, with a master's degree in Latin American Literature. She currently conducts work and research in education and communication for development in contexts of chronic crisis, emergency, and recovery. She is part of the Education Cluster of OCHA Venezuela, focal point of the Teacher Training Working Group in the Education Cluster, a member of the INEE Teacher Well-being Reference Group and has facilitated workshops on the use of the INEE Minimum Standards. Carmen América has also designed education plans and programs for the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan, in the case of Venezuela; as well as developed educational materials, seminars, and other resources for teacher training. Carmen América is Venezuelan and speaks Spanish and English.

Email: carmen.affigne@inee.org

 

Ahmed Al-Qadhi - Yemen

Term: March 2022 - February 2024

Ahmed Al-Qadhi - YemenAhmed is the INEE Country Focal Point for Yemen. He has been working in the humanitarian and education fields for more than 20 years as a teacher, master teacher trainer, supervisor, principal, and is also an NGO founder and CEO. Ahmed is a member of the Assessment Working Group in the National Education Cluster, Sana’a hub. Moreover, he is the Yemen Innovation Lab School’s Ambassador for Jane Goodall’s Global Goals and was responsible for translating the Global Goals Book into Arabic. In addition, Ahmed works as a Teach SDGs Ambassador in Yemen, a role in which he conducts professional development training courses for teachers on teaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, Ahmed focuses on EiE programs in Yemen and runs a program supporting rural schoolgirls to continue their education. He believes that education is the shortest way to peace and prosperity. Ahmed is Yemeni and speaks Arabic and English.

Email: ahmed.al-qadhi@inee.org


Ways to engage with the CFPs

INEE Country Focal Points play a crucial role in building and nurturing relationships between INEE members in their country, and they implement specific activities to this end: 

  • Convene meetings of the national membership (e.g. Meet-Ups).
  • Promote new INEE membership in the country.
  • Build linkages and support communication between INEE members in country.
  • Contribute resources, news, and other country information for global INEE newsletters and other communication platforms, network spaces, and resources.

We encourage INEE members to contact their country focal points to: 

  1. Submit questions you may have on ways to engage as an INEE member; 
  2. Share country and regional-level EiE resources, tools, events, and other information, so it can be disseminated both in country and to the broader network;
  3. Suggest ideas for thematic, country, regional, and/or audience-specific webinars or discussions you would like INEE to organize. (Be ready to volunteer!)
  4. Send thoughts and ideas for how the INEE Country Focal Point could engage with existing INEE members and recruit new members at the country level. 

If there isn’t yet an INEE Country Focal Point in your country, we encourage you to reach out to CFPs operating in your language and/or region. Also, please don't hesitate to contact memberservices@inee.org with any queries, suggestions, and other thoughts!

About the INEE Country Focal Point initiative

The initiative started off as a 6-month pilot phase in February 2021 with the selection of 12 INEE Country Focal Points. In July 2021, an internal evaluation of the initiative was conducted, which led to the extension of the terms of 11 CFPs for another six months, through February 2022. In February 2022, 17 CFPs were selected for year-long terms through February 2023.

 

INEE CFP selection criteria: The selection committee, composed of INEE Secretariat staff, reviews all applications, and weighs them against several criteria and considerations, both on an individual level and as an incoming cohort. These include geographic and linguistic representation, type of EiE context, operational reach (local, national, regional), areas of expertise, gender balance, and more. CFPs represent a wide range of backgrounds, geography, languages, and areas of expertise, and demonstrate a strong commitment to education in emergencies work, and to promoting the values, priorities, and activities of INEE.

Your thoughts on the INEE Country Focal Points initiative are always welcome and can be sent directly to: memberservices@inee.org.