Ms. Zues has extensive experience supporting ministries of health and national purchasers to design and implement strategic purchasing reforms. She has led the development of service specifications, payment mechanisms, contracting arrangements, and performance monitoring systems under Programs of Medical Guarantees, including reforms for PHC, hospital care, maternal and child health, and noncommunicable diseases. Her work includes designing risk-adjusted capitation models for PHC in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan; leading costing studies for rehabilitation, telemedicine, and TB services in Ukraine and Uzbekistan; and supporting DRG-based hospital payment reforms in Ukraine, Ghana, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan. She has also modeled annual budgets to assess financial risks for providers and purchasing agencies and advised governments on policies related to pooling, provider autonomy, and benefit design. In addition, she has strengthened ministry capacity to coordinate cross-sector reforms within sector-wide approaches (SWAp) and supported the use of costing data and National Health Accounts to inform resource allocation.

Ms. Zues brings deep expertise in TB financing and service delivery reform. She has led TB system mapping and facility-level costing; designed case-based payment models and laboratory payment approaches; and developed incentives to strengthen TB detection and treatment within PHC. She has supported the inclusion of TB services in State Medical Guarantee Programs and the design of TB contracting arrangements for national purchasers. She has also facilitated regional learning exchanges across Eastern Europe and Central Asia to build capacity in TB payment reform and contributed to multi-country assessments in Sub-Saharan Africa to address financial barriers to TB, HIV, and malaria services.

As a senior fellow at Results for Development (R4D), Ms. Zues supports the Rehab4U project, leading a national rehabilitation costing study in Ukraine to inform revisions to payment systems under the Program of Medical Guarantees (PMG) and supporting strategic purchasing dialogue with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) and development partners.

Publications:

• Estimating Resources Associated with Delivering Telemedicine Services at Facility Level in Ukraine | Local Health System Sustainability Project, 2024
• Ukraine: Review of Health Ukraine Health Financing Reform: Progress and Future Directions. 2022
• Ukraine: Review of Health Financing Reforms 2016–2019: WHO–World Bank Joint Report, 2020

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As the Tanzania country director at Results for Development (R4D), Dr. Mtei oversees all R4D projects and activities in Tanzania, providing strategic leadership in health financing. He plays a pivotal role in guiding the design and implementation of initiatives within Tanzania and contributes to projects in other countries.

Dr. Mtei has an extensive portfolio of publications and has shared insights at international conferences and forums, focusing on health financing and PFM. His expertise has been instrumental in refining provider payment mechanisms and extending financial management systems to frontline service providers, significantly enhancing service delivery in Tanzania. He also fosters strong collaborations with policymakers, development partners, technical working groups, and stakeholders at national and sub-national levels across both public and private sectors.

Before joining R4D, Dr. Mtei spent nine years at Abt Global (formerly Abt Associates), serving as public financing systems director and later as deputy chief of party for the USAID Sector Systems Strengthening project in Tanzania. During this time, he led efforts to strengthen public sector systems, focusing on strategic purchasing, resource tracking, revenue collection, budgeting, planning, reporting, expenditure management and citizen engagement. His work also supported the Government of Tanzania in implementing digital solutions to improve efficiency and accountability in public service delivery.

Dr. Mtei has over nine years of experience as a senior researcher conducting collaborative studies on health care financing policy, equity in health care access, health insurance, strategic purchasing, social protection and financial risk protection. His research has informed critical policy decisions, including the development of Tanzania’s Health Financing Strategy and the Universal Health Insurance Act.

He holds a PhD in health financing from the University of London’s London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Dr. Mtei is fluent in English and Swahili.

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At Results for Development (R4D), Jessica leads the EdTech Hub Helpdesk, providing technical leadership to this global education policy and program support initiative. She works with a team of education experts to respond to discrete requests from education officers working in low- and middle-income countries around the world who are looking for ways to incorporate EdTech into their education sectors. She helps the team analyze context and explore relevant approaches for complex educational settings, while also contributing to broader business development and partner engagement work across the Hub.

Throughout her career, Jessica has worked to expand access and improve the quality of basic education for marginalized and underserved populations. In Ghana, she expanded a media in the classroom pilot project from 15 schools to more than 300 schools under one of the first public-private partnerships with the UK Girls Education Challenge. In Uganda and Ethiopia, Jessica worked with the Ministries of Education, private and public funders to expand an innovative accelerated education program, to impact more than 300,000 students, teachers and community members.

Prior to joining R4D, Jessica worked for Geneva Global managing projects in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Liberia and Uganda. At Geneva Global, she worked closely with corporate, foundation and individual clients to leverage funds and early project results to double project funding and expand program activity under the flagship education initiative Speed School — an innovative accelerated education program focused on helping over-age, out-of-school children enter the formal school system. Prior to her work on Speed School, Jessica worked with Discovery Learning Alliance (now Impact(Ed)) to expand a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. She launched a new program office in the Northern Region of Ghana, significantly expanding operations and working closely with communities, school administrators and government education officials to improve enrollment, retention and learning outcomes.

Jessica holds a master’s degree in international educational development from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA from The College of William and Mary. She speaks conversational Spanish.

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Roli is a senior program officer with the Nigeria primary health care (PHC) financing technical assistance program at Results for Development (R4D), where she provides technical and program management at the federal and sub-national levels.

During the course of her career, Roli supported the FCT to capitalize on key health reforms in Nigeria to increase funding for primary health care through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) and deployed innovative ways to expand access to quality Reproductive maternal newborn child adolescents’ health plus nutrition services.

Before joining R4D, Roli made significant contributions to improving the FCT primary health care system in line with the “primary health care under one roof” policy. She supported the development of key policy documents including the minimum service package (MSP) and investment plan. She also coordinated the smooth roll-out of the NPHCDA gateway of the BHCPF implementation in the FCT. Roli provided support for development of the FCT annual operational plan for child health aimed at ensuring inclusion of high impact child health and nutrition interventions.

Roli holds a masters degree in public health from the Lund University.

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Mr. Issabu is the monitoring, evaluation and adaptive learning manager at Results for Development (R4D), where he oversees in-country MEAL activities. He supports the design and implementation of various data collection processes including mapping and lean testing as well as routine monitoring of program evaluation activities. He provides in-country adaptive learning technical leadership and leads all desk review and analysis for various adaptive learning activities.

Throughout his career, Mr. Issabu has focused on building robust MEAL systems and processes for organizational and project results tracking and harvesting thus increasing organizational transparency and accountability.

Before joining R4D, Mr. Issabu accumulated experience and knowledge working with local and international NGOs such as Pathfinder International, Population Service International, International Youth Foundation, Restless Development, Oxfam, Plan International, Legal Services Facility and Foundation for Civil Society to mention are few. In his role as MEAL personnel, he supported and led the design and implementation of MEAL systems and processes for smooth data collection.

Mr. Issabu holds a Master of Science degree in natural resource assessment and management (MSc. NARAM) from the University of Dar es Salaam, a Bachelor of Arts in archaeology from the University of Dar es Salaam and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Open University of Tanzania (in progress). He is a native speaker of Kiswahili and speaks fluent English.

Publications

Paul, P., Kangalawe, R.Y.M. & Mboera, L.E.G. Land-use patterns and their implication on malaria transmission in Kilosa District, Tanzania. Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines 4, 6 (2018).

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• Highlighted session: Impact Bonds for Education: Does innovation in financing address equity and quality challenges?
  Sunday, February 19, 2:45-4:15 pm EST
  Featuring R4D Senior Fellow Nick Burnett
• Highlighted session: Blended continuous professional development for educators: Case studies from the Global South
  Sunday, February 19, 2:45 to 4:15 pm EST
  Featuring members of EdTech Hub
• Building an innovative and integrated data system to drive decision making and deliver quality, equitable education in Sierra Leone
  Sunday, February 19, 6:30pm – 8:00 pm EST
  Featuring members of EdTech Hub
• How might we use education networks to better support schools and teachers across contexts?
  Tuesday, February 21, 4:45 – 6:15 pm EST
  Featuring R4D Senior Program Officer Laurel Schmitt
• Language and Belonging: Equity and indigenous language education: Localising resources
  Wednesday, February 22, 2:45-4:15 pm EST
  Featuring members of EdTech Hub
• Moving from research to action: What works, what doesn’t, and why?
  Wednesday, February 22, 1:30 – 3:00 pm EST
  Featuring R4D Education Practice Co-Lead Mark Roland
• Strengthening ECD systems, financing and accountability
  Wednesday, February 22, 3:15 – 4:45 pm EST
  Featuring R4D Senior Fellow Michelle Neuman

For the full program, click here.

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At Results for Development (R4D), Mrs. Ajeigbe work closely with the Innovation practice team to devise and execute strategies and systems that support operational excellence, improve strategic budgeting and resource management, program management and quality control, business development, team-building, and human resources strategy. Some of the projects she works on include the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA), FCDO- Frontier Tech Hub, among others.

Some of Mrs. Ajeigbe’s major career achievements include restructuring an organization’s financial processes and procedures that had a major impact on delivery of their objectives. She also formulated and developed financial models and tools for government-funded startup projects.

Before joining R4D, Mrs. Ajeigbe worked with national not-for-profit organizations in the UK managing operational and strategic financial operations. This includes compliance to the UK Charity Commission, Companies House and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). She also worked on the Equality Justice and Alliance (EJA) Programme, funded by UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), where she managed budgets, grants and contracts.

Mrs. Ajeigbe holds a masters degree in development economics and BSc in accounting. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountant (CIMA). She speaks English and Yoruba.

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At Results for Development (R4D), Mr. Gjyla is the research finance manager for the EdTech Hub where he is responsible for developing budgets for research studies, developing and reporting on research finance data and performance to the research directors and core delivery team.

Prior to joining R4D, Mr. Gjyla was an independent consultant providing accounting and financial management support to NGOs, companies, and sole traders.

Mr. Gjyla has an MSc in finance and accounting from the University of Westminster, UK, is an ACCA candidate, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK, and has a BSc in finance from the University of Tirana, Albania.

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Mr. Olanipekun’s interests and achievements revolve around working with budding sub-grantee non-profits from inception/proof of concept/pilot stages to receiving mainstream funding and achieving clear long-term strategic development plans.

Prior to joining R4D, Mr. Olanipekun worked as the program finance and compliance manager for West Africa for the UK government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). In this role, he helped establish and manage the Lake Chad Basin and the West Africa Regional Response Programs for which he was awarded the CSSF global personal professional achievement award. Prior to this role, he worked with Save the Children International as the budgets and costing specialist for Nigeria. He also has worked for organizations such as EngenderHealth and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs.

Mr. Olanipekun holds bachelor and master’s degrees in accounting. He is skilled in large-scale ERP systems and software such as Quickbooks, Microsoft Power BI, and Tableau, and has expertise in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), proposal writing and budgeting, and the Sage 50 Accounting Software.

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