What the Alumni have to say about the AIFP: throwback on Muluemebet Brehanu’s experience

Through the Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Program, African experts in the infrastructure and public-private partnership sector get a unique opportunity to enhance their practical skills. For Muluemebet Brehanu, who took part in the 2021 edition of the program, the AIFP has been an enriching experience allowing her to consolidate her theoretical knowledge hands on practical experiences, gaining confidence in her ability to implement PPP projects.

Muluemebet is advisor for PPPs for the Ethiopian Minister of Finance. She explains that taking part in AIFP has boosted her self-confidence. It has also enabled her to acquire skills specific to working with a variety of institutions in both the public and private sectors: “The Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Program helped me. It increased my confidence, because through the program, I gained knowledge on how to manage private firms’ interest, public interest and banks’ interests. I gained different experience from my colleagues from various African countries, from experts working in French infrastructure networks. I gained a lot of experience through the program and my colleagues. […] We mainly revise feasibility studies, bankability assessments, public sector comparators. When we do this, we work as a group. I used my AIFP experience to share my knowledge. I try to help and support my team with this knowledge.”

For her, professional immersion was a particularly enriching stage in the program. This personalized immersion enabled her to make up for any shortcomings she may have had in certain areas of PPP implementation. She says: “For me, the most rewarding part of the program was the immersion. All three steps were very interesting, but the immersion I did helped me a lot to bridge my knowledge gap. […] I did my professional immersion with Clifford Chance: they were very helpful. They helped me fill my knowledge gap regarding the legal aspect of PPPs. When working on PPPs, we must focus on contracts management. There are interests for both the public and the private sector, therefore we need to know how to prioritize projects, how to negotiate, how to protect government and public interest. I learned a lot from the Masterclass, the immersion, and from the APMG certification.”

Finally, Muluemebet emphasizes the importance of the Alumni network that has been consolidated over time: “I communicate with the AIFP Alumni through the network you created. I participate in online sessions. They are very helpful, and the topics are very relevant. […] The AIFP is also a good way to create a network of PPP professionals to talk with. We have similar backgrounds and geographic origins, but we are at different levels of development. I was happy because I was able to gain knowledge from my colleagues who work for more developed countries. They were different case studies, role play activities. I think practical knowledge sharing was very useful.”