The Director of the project is Benny Dembitzer. He is an economist who has studied at Cambridge, Uppsala, and Lausanne. (At Cambridge he was a pupil of Amartya Sen). He has worked in 35 countries in Africa and 2 in Asia with several different international agencies (UNDP, UNIDO, UNCDF, ITC, World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, EU). He was Economic Adviser to the Dutch Aid Mission to Indonesia. He has worked for OXFAM and CARE International. During the years 1987 to 1999 Mr Dembitzer organised the annual GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP WORLD FAIR. This became the largest annual gathering of development agencies in the world. In 1999 it attracted some 175 voluntary organisations and commercial concerns working in the global arena and attracted 12,000 visitors.

Mr Dembitzer has also worked as a consultant for DfID, the British Department for International Development. In 1985 he was the European Director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), winners of the Nobel Peace Prize that year. Between 1973 and 78 he set up and managed FRIDA (the Fund for Research and Investment for the Development of Africa). This international NGO based in London worked all over Africa (with offices in Mali, Kenya and Lesotho) to promote small-scale projects in the poorest countries of the continent.

Mr Dembitzer has been on the Council of the Africa Centre of London since 1992, was Secretary of the UK Chapter of the Society for International Development, Chairman of International Voluntary Service and one of the Directors of War on Want.