People

Titilola Akindeinde

Executive Director

Dr. Titilola Akindeinde has over 20 years of experience in Economic Policy and Strategy in the UK and Nigeria. She has a proven track record as a UK government economist, a consultant providing technical support to the Government of Nigeria, and as Team Leader/Programme Manager implementing FCDO funded Policy Development Facility (PDF) programmes, where she demonstrated success in leadership, programme management, strategic thinking and engagement, analytical decision making, economic analysis, and policy and strategy development. She has led teams and consultants in economic and governmental interventions and communicated the results effectively to various stakeholders and audiences.

Dr. Akindeinde has a highly developed political awareness, understanding of economic policies and growth, and wide-reaching networks through her experience working at a high level within government. This awareness underscores her ability to use political judgement and sensitivity in managing relationships with senior government and private sector actors as evidenced in her leadership of PDF.

Moyo Arewa

Program Director

Moyo is a researcher, policy professional, and program manager currently serving as the Program Director for the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI). In this capacity, he oversees all aspects of LoGRI's research and advisory operations and provides strategic support to LoGRI's Executive Director and Chair. He was previously the Manager for Strategic Initiatives at the International Centre for Tax and Development and, before then, a Policy Development Officer at the City of Toronto. His research has focused on understanding how digital technologies impact tax policy, administration, and public service delivery.

He has a wealth of experience using his management, engagement, and research skills to address policy, governance, and administrative challenges. Moyo received his master's degree from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Colette Nyirakamana

Research Lead

Dr. Colette Nyirakamana is Research Lead for the LoGRI program, and Senior Research Associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining LoGRI, Colette worked as program lead of the African Property Tax Initiative  (APTI) at the International Centre for Tax and Development, where she was in charge of supporting APTI-funded researchers, leading research projects, engaging with key stakeholders and advising governments in the design of property tax reform efforts. Her research focuses on local finances with particular emphasis on the institutional and political factors that create favourable and unfavourable conditions for effective revenue mobilization. She holds a doctoral degree in Comparative Public Policy from McMaster University in Canada

Camille Barras 

Policy Lead

Camille Barras is the Policy Lead for the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI). Her areas of work and interest encompass public governance and administration, subnational governance, intergovernmental relations and state-society relations – and their connection with taxation. She is also interested in questions related to the effectiveness and evolution of international development as a field, in evidence generation and uptake as well as in research methods (quantitative, mixed, evaluation). She completed, in 2023, a PhD at the University of Cambridge, investigating the effects of decentralization on political attitudes and behaviours, and holds academic qualifications in political science, public policy and law. Previously, she worked during seven years at the intersection of practice and research, mainly in the international development sector across a variety of organizations and projects in West/North Africa, South/East Asia and Europe. Among others, she worked for a local governance project at UNDP, was a project manager for impact evaluations at the Center for Evaluation and Development and consulted for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Evan Trowbridge 

Technical Lead

Evan advances LoGRI’s work through the collection, analysis, and management of data. Before joining the LoGRI team in Sierra Leone, he was the data manager at a local research organization. Evan’s prior experience includes four years of governance experience in Honduras, where he worked for USAID and a local NGO while also leading a small program for at-risk youth. His other work includes the International Innovation Corps and an association of philanthropic foundations. Evan has a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and undergraduate degrees from Penn State University.

Xaver Schenker 

Technical Consultant

Xaver is an independent technical expert who has been collaborating and leading on a variety of projects with LoGRI. After his MSc. in Economics at the Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon, he worked at a Research and Knowledge Center for Development Economics on projects in Guinea-Bissau and Angola. Subsequently, Xaver joined ICTD and went on to lead the property tax reform in Freetown, Sierra Leone, while conducting a variety of other consultancies with regards to local government revenue reforms across the globe. In his role as an independent technical consultant he continues to collaborate with LoGRI and other stakeholders on a number of reform projects and other consultancies.

Marie-Reine Mukazayire

Research Officer

Marie-Reine is a Research Officer at the Local Government Revenue Initiative, where she focuses on property taxation reforms in francophone African countries such as Benin, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. She holds a Master’s of Global Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, specializing in Development and Human Rights, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of British Columbia. Marie-Reine has a strong academic and professional background in equitable and inclusive governance in sub-Saharan Africa, with experience in qualitative research, stakeholder engagement, and project management. 

Regan McCort

Communications and Engagement Officer 

Regan McCort is a Communications and Engagement Officer with the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI). In her current position, Regan seeks to bridge the gap between property tax research and reform by supporting LoGRI's strategic communications, knowledge translation, and stakeholder engagement efforts. She is a recent Master of Global Affairs graduate from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and also holds a Bachelor of Arts specializing in International Relations from the University of Western Ontario.

Adele Somat

Project Officer

Adele is a Project Officer at LoGRI where she advises governments on the design and implementation of property tax reform initiatives. Before joining LoGRI, Adele led the property tax reform in Kananga, DRC, working with UC Berkeley in close partnership with LoGRI. Prior to that, she served as an economic consultant at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Adele holds a master’s degree in Economics from King’s College London.

Fahmida Hoque 

Financial Officer 

Fahmida Hoque has been supporting with financial operations for the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) since June 2024. She is also a Financial and Grants Officer at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, where she has been working with the Director and Manager of PEARL (the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab) administering accounting and financial operations. In her role, she assists with managing grant budgets, tracking funds, and conducting financial reporting and analysis. 

Henna Qayumi 

Grants Administrator

Henna is currently a Grants Administrator at the University of Toronto. She has a strong background in financial management and previously served as a Financial Officer, overseeing day-to-day processes, forecasts, and budgeting.

Kevin Greico 

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow 

Kevin Grieco is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Local Government Revenue Initiative. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2024. He studies how low-capacity governments raise taxes and enforce policies. His current work focuses on fiscal capacity and traditional political institutions in Sierra Leone. In his research he collects original quantitative and qualitative data, uses field experiments to answer causal questions, and often collaborates with local government and civil society partners.

Graeme Stewart-Wilson

Doctoral Fellow

Graeme Stewart-Wilson is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Toronto and a researcher with LoGRI. His research explores the links between local statebuilding and tax reform in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nicolas Orgeira Pillai

Doctoral Fellow

Nicolas Orgeira Pillai is a Doctoral Fellow with LoGRI. His research focuses on local revenue mobilisation, with a particular interest in property taxation and tax compliance. Through the use of impact evaluation approaches and quantitative analysis, his work aims to support tax administrations in implementing state-building tax reforms that improves governance and the relationship between the government and the citizens. His projects also relate to tax administration, gender and taxation, and the informal economy. He holds a master’s in economics at the University of Toronto and is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the University of Sussex.

Sripriya Iyengar Srivatsa

Doctoral Fellow

Sripriya Iyengar Srivatsa is the Thematic Focal Point for Gender and Tax at the ICTD and a Doctoral Fellow at LoGRI. She is pursuing her PhD at University of Cambridge. Her research areas include political economy, state capacity, and gender, with a geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Combining observational data and experimental methods, she specialises in analysing the roles of competing political institutions, state-society-land relations, and connections between intra-household dynamics and socioeconomic outcomes. She was an ODI Fellow at the Ministry of Finance in Sierra Leone from 2019-2021. She obtained her Master’s in Political Economy from SOAS, University of London.