Development Initiatives hires Chief Operating Officer and new East Africa Director

Development Initiatives (DI) has appointed Anthony Boateng as Chief Operating Officer, based in Bristol, UK, and Stephen Chacha as the new Director of East Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Anthony Boateng joins Development Initiatives with over two decades in intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and the private sector across corporate finance management and operational leadership. Prior to joining DI, Anthony was Lead for Africa and Financial Resilience Specialist at NIRAS Sweden. He has held a mixture of consultant and leadership roles in finance and business development for a variety of NGOs and think tanks based across West and East Africa.

Anthony is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and a Chartered Global Management Accountant with a Master of Laws in International Commercial Law.

Stephen Chacha is a development expert with over fifteen years of experience in national, regional and global development programs on data for development, data ecosystem building, data governance, data driven innovations and sustainable development.

He is a seasoned and respected development expert who co-founded the Africa Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism, Africa Working Group, Africa Philanthropic Foundation, Tanzania Data Lab (dLab), Uwezo Tanzania, Tanzania Youth Vision Association, and the Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania (YUNA-TZ).

He also sits in several global expert panels on UN reforms, including Sustainable Development Goals, Finance for Development, Earth Observation, Data and Innovation.

Reacting to the appointments, DI’s Chief Executive Officer, Harpinder Collacott, said: “I am delighted to welcome both Stephen and Anthony to Development Initiatives. These appointments coincide with the new direction set for DI in our strategy launched in 2021 and will help DI achieve its mission. Anthony and Stephen both bring a wealth of leadership experience, as well as skills, relationships and ideas that will be highly valued at DI as we move forward.

“The DI team look forward to working with Stephen and Anthony as we adapt and change to deliver our ten year strategy, and work with and through exciting alliances and partnerships to deliver on the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals."