International Relations
'Dapo Oyewole is the pioneer Secretary-General of the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Union Legislatures (CoSPAL) and the Senior Special Assistant on International Cooperation to the Nigerian President. He is a public sector leader, policy adviser, technical expert, author and speaker with 25 years’ experience in the fields of governance, international development and global affairs.
In the public sector, he served previously as Special Adviser on International and Interparliamentary Affairs to the 9th Speaker of the House of Representatives, and prior to that was Special Adviser to three ministers in the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. In government, his portfolios focused primarily on donor coordination, international cooperation, parliamentary diplomacy & strategic policy initiatives.
In international development consulting he held senior positions at McKinsey & Company and the Palladium Group, where he led the design of public policy initiatives and development strategies for governments and donor clients. He has also been a senior consultant at international organisations such as the World Bank, United Nations, Commonwealth Secretariat & the UK’s DFID/ FCDO etc.
In civil society, he headed the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-UK) and, later, the Centre for African Public Policy and Strategy (CAPPS). He is Founding Director of the Legislative Mentorship Initiative (LMI), which trains young people for leadership roles in the public sector. A Senior Yale World Fellow, Senior Aspen Fellow and Chevening Scholar, he writes, speaks and provides analytical commentary and policy advice on governance, development policy and global affairs.