The Fisiy Foundation | About

ABOUT US

Established in Washington DC on February 5, as 501(c)(3) corporation under US Law, the Fisiy Foundation and Leadership Center’s (FFLC) primary mission is to address deficits in local governance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by fostering a culture of service, accountability and mutual respect. FFLC will focus on the critical interface between citizens and the local state, by fostering inclusive, cohesive and resilient institutions for responsive local engagement.

Vision

Create public value for citizens through accountable and responsive local governments as the critical building blocks of a modern and accountable state.

Approach

The Approach advocated will enhance citizens’ engagement with their local state through the following processes:

An institutional audit of local operating systems to establish and strengthen a planning and implementation framework as well as a culture of service delivery to citizens
An approach to problem solving involving local communities as co-partners in the design and implementation of agreed initiatives
Rapid response to local disasters and emergencies including situations of dire starvation and famine
A new approach to mobilizing and organizing local business units to become engines of growth and sources of public revenue for local development

Leadership

Learn more about our leadership

Maninder Gill is currently Director, Change Management in the office of the Vice Presidency for Change, Knowledge and Learning. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Gill was Sector Manager in the Sustainable Development Department of the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Region, a position he held from September, 2008 to January, 2013. Before joining the Latin America and Caribbean region, Mr. Gill held the same position in the Europe and Central Asia region of the Bank for about four years. Earlier, he also worked in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Vice-Presidency for four years as the point-person for the World Bank’s work on issues related to Involuntary Resettlement and Indigenous Peoples.

Prior to joining the Bank in 1993, Mr. Gill worked in the Indian Administrative Service in India, where he held a number of positions including CEO of a medium-sized city, Rural Development Coordinator, and District Administrator. As one of his assignments, he headed the project organization in Maharashtra state for the tri-state Narmada Dam Project in Western India, where, among a host of other responsibilities, he was in-charge of the resettlement of about 25,000 indigenous peoples affected by the construction of the dam.

Jeffrey Thindwa is Manager of the Social Accountability Practice in the World Bank Institute (WBI). He joined the World Bank in 2000 as Senior Social Development Specialist, later becoming Team Leader of the Participation and Civic Engagement Cluster, whose mandate was to support the design and integration of stakeholder participation in Bank financed operations as well as social accountability, towards improved transparency and accountability.

In 2009 he joined the Bank’s South Asia Region Social Development Unit, working with operations teams to integrate social accountability in projects while task managing the ‘Program on Accountability in Nepal’ which supported social accountability by Nepalese CSOs through grants, capacity building, knowledge management and learning. Mr. Thindwa studied in Malawi and the United Kingdom, and began his career as a Legal Aid lawyer in the Malawi Government, subsequently practicing law in the private sector. He has 17 years of broad international experience working in civil society based in Malawi, the United States and the United Kingdom where his last assignment was with World Vision UK as Director of International Programs.

Cyprian Fisiy is the Founder and CEO of the Fisiy Foundation and Leadership Center (FFLC) registered in Washington, DC.

Before his retirement at the World Bank in December 2013, Mr. Fisiy was Director of the Social Development Department, which offers advisory and operational support, research and innovative thinking in diverse areas at policy, programs and project management.

Mr. Fisiy joined the Bank in 1994 as a Social Scientist in the Africa Environment Sustainable Development Department. He held various positions, including that of Lead Social Scientist for the Africa Poverty Reduction and Social Development. He later became the Sector Manager in the East Asia and Pacific Region Sustainable Development Department.

Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Fisiy was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Agrarian Law, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands. He also worked for 10 years as a research fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences, Yaoundé, Cameroon.