Saul Levin (Course Director)
Saul Levin is the Executive Director of TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies), a not-for-profit economic research institute, and since 2014 co-course director of APORDE. He has previously worked as a Chief Director in the Economic Development Department (EDD) with oversight over the Development Finance Institutions reporting to EDD. Prior to that Saul spent two years as a senior manager at Standard Bank, working as a Business Operations Manager in the Corporate Affairs Unit. Previously he worked as the Chief of Staff for the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry and for the Minister of Minerals and Energy, as well as an economist at the Department of Trade and Industry. Saul has a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Johannesburg.
Niki Cattaneo (Course Director)
Niki Cattaneo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Economic History at Rhodes University in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), where she has taught since 1990. Prior to that, she was a researcher at the University’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. She is co-course director of APORDE and was a member of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Economic Research Advisory Network (ERAN) until 2018. Her research areas are trade and industrial policy, regional integration and the impact of WTO and regional/bilateral trade agreements on development policy space. She teaches postgraduate courses in trade and industrial policy and econometrics at Rhodes.
She was an editor of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies from 1995 to 2005 and an Associate of the Trade Law Centre in Stellenbosch from 2008 to 2013. She has research linkages with TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies) and was a member of the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development’s Experts Network in 2017-2018. She is a PhD candidate at the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI-ID), School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, and holds an MSc in Economics from Rhodes University.
ACADEMIC SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Fiona Tregenna
Fiona Tregenna is the Director of UNU-MERIT (United Nations University–Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology). She previously held the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development and was a Professor of Economics at the University of Johannesburg. She chairs the APORDE Scientific Committee.
Fiona is also affiliated with SOAS University of London, as a Professorial Research Associate and a Fellow of the Development Leadership Dialogue. Her research focuses primarily on issues of structural change, industrialisation and deindustrialisation, industrial policy, and innovation and technological upgrading; with a primary focus on Africa. She has published widely in leading journals, received awards and grants for her research, led large research projects, co-edited several books, and serves on the editorial boards of various international journals and book series.
Fiona has served on many policy bodies including the G20 Africa Expert Panel, African Continental Free Trade Area Advisory Council, South Africa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council, the International Commission of Experts on Financing for Development, the Competition Tribunal, and various boards. She has advised international organisations such as UNIDO, UNCTAD, and the ILO, and has contributed to a number of flagship United Nations reports. Fiona is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and sits on several ASSAf bodies. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Nimrod Zalk (APORDE Co-founder)
Dr Nimrod Zalk is Chief Research Officer: Climate and Economic Development at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. The Climate and Economic Development research programme focusses on climate-compatible African structural transformation, value chains, and the role of development banks. Particular focus areas are how African development banks (ADBs) can expand their balance sheets and enhance their capabilities to drive green structural transformation and sector opportunities for low carbon African industrialisation.
He is a development economist focused on green industrialisation and development finance in Africa. He has over 20 years’ experience in trade and industrial development research; policy formulation and implementation; and development finance. He served as a Deputy Director-General in the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and as a non-executive Director of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa.
He holds an MSc and a PhD in Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He has authored a number of policy documents (notably South Africa’s National Industrial Policy Framework); academic publications; and opinion pieces. He is co-founder of the annual African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE).
Christopher Cramer (Chairperson of the Scientific Committee)
Christopher Cramer is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at SOAS, University of London and Co-Director of Development Leadership Dialogue (DLD) at SOAS. He has chaired the Centre of African Studies in the University of London, was Vice Chair of the Royal African Society, is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and for more than a decade chaired the Scientific Committee of APORDE. His publications include: African Economic Development: Evidence, Theory and Policy (co-written with Sender and Oqubay), published in 2020 and free to download at
http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/openaccess/9780198832331.pdf; Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries (2006); editor (with Cheru and Oqubay) of the Oxford Handbook on the Ethiopian Economy (2019) and (with Oqubay, Chang and Kozul-Wright) of the Oxford Handbook of Industrial Policy. He has worked as a consultant for a range of organisations, including the World Bank, UNDP, ILO, FAO, EU, DFID, the Ethiopian government, the DTIC in South Africa, and Sida (the Swedish International Development Agency). One recent publication is: ‘Finding out Faster: Pre-Survey Scoping for a Study of Deprivation in Majakaneng, North West Province, South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, July 2025 (with John Sender) open access:
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.soas.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/03057070.2025.2519997?src=exp-la
Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at SOAS University of London and is Co-Director of Development Leadership Dialogue (DLD) and the Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation (CSST) at SOAS. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he has published 17 authored books (five co-authored) and 11 edited books. His main books include The Political Economy of Industrial Policy (1994), Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002), Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies, and the Threat to the Developing World (2007), 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism (2010), Economics: The User’s Guide (2014), and Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World (2022). His writings have been translated and published in 46 languages and 48 countries. Worldwide, his books have sold around 3 million copies.
Ha-Joon Chang’s academic articles have appeared in journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Development and Change, European Journal of Development Research, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Institutional Economics, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics, Lancet, Review of International Political Economy, and World Development on issues such as: theories of the state and the market; institutions and development; globalisation; trade and industrial policies; the East Asian economies; international migration; agricultural policy; commercial determinants of public health.
Apart from his academic activities, Professor Chang has worked as a consultant for numerous international organisations, including various UN agencies, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank. He has also worked as a consultant for several governments (such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, the UK, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam). He is currently a member of the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations, the highest UN advisory board on development matters. He also sits on the International Advisory Panel of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex. He is a Senior Research Associate of the US think-tank CEPR (Center for Economic and Policy Research).
Ha-Joon is winner of the 2003 Myrdal Prize, awarded to his book, Kicking Away the Ladder, by the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, and the winner (jointly with Richard Nelson of Columbia University) of the 2005 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought awarded by Tufts University.
Zukiswa Kimani
Ms Zukiswa Kimani is the Chief Director in Sectors Branch of the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic). She has been working in the industrial policy environment for over 19 years, responsible for managing, evaluating, and developing South Africa’s industrial policy inclusive of the previous Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) and recently the Industrial Development Strategy.
She is also responsible for the design and development of Marine Manufacturing, Aerospace and Defence sector interventions. Her Chief Directorate also oversees research undertaken by the Sectors branch to ensure policy formulation that is evidence based and Industrial Policy Capacity Building Programmes such as the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE). She serves on various panels, Boards, and investment adjudication Committees. She holds a Master’s degree in International and Development Economics from the Australian National University (ANU).