Aly Verjee is a political analyst, mediator, and author. He is a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute and a non-resident senior advisor to the Africa Centre at the United States Institute of Peace. Previously, he was deputy and then acting chief of staff to and speechwriter for the former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, the chair of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission overseeing the 2015 peace agreement in South Sudan.From 2014-2015, he was senior advisor to and speechwriter for the chief mediator of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-led peace process for South Sudan. From 2010-2014, he was senior researcher at the Rift Valley Institute, where he directed the Institute’s flagship Sudan and South Sudan course (2013) and Great Lakes course (2012, 2013), and advised the peace processes in Darfur and between Sudan and South Sudan.He lived and worked in Sudan from 2005-2010 and returned in 2011 as chief political analyst for the European Union (EU) observation mission for the South Sudan independence referendum. Mr. Verjee has administered, observed or analysed more than thirty elections in more than a dozen countries, including his role as chief political analyst for the EU election observation missions to Zambia (2016) and Tanzania (2015).He has also supported refugee repatriation operations to South Sudan from the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Kenya. He has also taken advisory role at the African Union, IGAD, the European Commission, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch among many other intergovernmental organisations and international non-governmental organisations. Mr. Verjee is also author of multiple publications mainly relating to elections and peace and security related issues in various African States.
