Marit Y. Kitaw

Interim Director African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), African Union Commission

Ms. Marit Kitaw, PhD  is the Interim Director of the African Minerals Development Center (AMDC), a Specialized Agency of the African Union, and a panafrican Center dedicated to harnessing Africa’s mineral resources for sustainable development and structural transformation in Africa, through implementing the Africa Mining Vision (AMV). She was previously an Economist at UNECA where she became a strong advocate of developmental and sustainable mining. Marit was also Chief Technical Advisor on Extractives Industries for Sustainable Development at UNDP Mozambique where she actively supported the elaboration of an AMV aligned minerals policy and strategy, the formulation of a local content policy and contributed to the environmental governance of the extractives sector.  As a founding member of the AMDC when it was a project housed under UNECA, she actively contributed to the development of major implementing tools and became a strong advocate of minerals for sustainable development,  through linking the mining sector to other sectors of the economy, through value addition, local content, and sustainable mining, among others. Dr. Marit previously worked in COMESA, at the African Development Bank, and at the Institute of World Affairs in Washington, DC.  Dr. Marit Kitaw received her Ph.D in Economics from the University of Nice/ Sophia-Antipolis in France, and an MBA in Leadership and Sustainabillity from the University of Cumbria, UK. She hails from Ethiopia and is fluent in English, French, Amharic and conversant in Portuguese.