Ese Emerhi

Since 2017, Ese has served as the project director for the Kiisi Trust Fund, a donor-advised-fund managed by TrustAfrica in Ogoniland in Rivers State, Nigeria. She has spent the past 20 years working in the international development field, supporting human rights defenders and organizations, developing non-profit boards, working with marginalized communities and groups, as well as youth-led organizations across the globe advocating for greater youth inclusion in development projects, leadership, and youth empowerment. As the project lead for the Kiisi Trust Fund, she directed a multi-million USD fund for the benefit of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, instilling a new model of participatory community-based grant making for sustainable development.

In 2018, in her role as project director for TrustAfrica, she partnered with the GFCF, Africa Philanthropy Network, and the Kenya Development Community Foundation to host the Twitter chat “You Say Intermediary, I Say….?” that sought to better understand and define the controversial word “intermediary” as it is used in the development field. She has also written about her work in the philanthropic sector, and her recent article “What’s the Matter With Small Grants” can be found here.