Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima is an international development practitioner and researcher. Over the past two decades, he has played active roles in the formulation, promotion, program design for implementation and review of national, regional and global policies and legal frameworks. Dabesaki recently completed a nine-year term as a senior programme officer at the Ford Foundation, a US social justice philanthropic foundation, where he led a variety of programmes across a variety of thematic areas. He played a leading role regionally and globally in the foundation’s youth opportunity and learning and gender, racial and ethnic justice programs respectively, developing strategies, leading relationships with governments, private sector, civil society and youth organisations and designing bespoke programs. 

From 2021 to 2024, Dabesaki was the global lead for the Ford Foundation’s global initiative on polarisation, working with teams across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the US to develop projects to address various dimensions of polarisation, including the role played by technology. He also led the establishment of special funds including the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund and the West Africa Democracy Fund, which support citizens participation and democratic renewal. Prior to joining Ford, Dabesaki was previously a consultant for over a decade, working for leading institutions like the African Union, UN institutions (UNFPA, UNDP, UNESCO), Commonwealth institutions (Youth Program (Lusaka), Secretariat (London) and Commonwealth of Learning (Vancouver)), and international organisations (Open Society Foundation, Search for Common Ground and Last Mile Health). 

Dabesaki’s research has substantially focused on youth aspirations, quality of life and political participation. He works with these three concepts as interrelated and mutually reinforcing. He has published on them in refereed journals, book chapters, and a monograph “Measuring Youth Quality of Life in sub-Saharan Africa” by Springer Books. His current research is broadly focused on youth civic participation from the perspectives of high net worth youth philanthropy and measuring youth-led protest outcomes.

Dabesaki has a PhD in International Development and MA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia and a Bachelors in Educational Psychology from the University of Ibadan. He was previously an External Research Associate to the University of East Anglia and currently a non-resident Visiting Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand, Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment.