Gibril Faal

Prof. Gibril Faal is a multi-disciplinary business and development executive, and visiting professor in practice at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA), London School of Economics (LSE). He is the co-founder and director of GK Partners, specialising in socially responsible business models, sustainable development and programme implementation. He is a member of the advisory council of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program; the founder of RemitAid™, a programme to transform remittances into sustainable development finance; and international consultant to several governments and international institutions across the world. Prof. Faal previously served as vice chair of Bond, the platform of UK NGOs working on international development; chairman of African Foundation for Development (AFFORD), which pioneered concepts and practices on diaspora-development; and the founding director of Africa-Europe Diaspora Development Platform (ADEPT). He served as technical expert on negotiations for the UN Agenda 2030 and the Global Compact for Migration, and delivered keynote addresses at the UN General Assembly at the 2013 High Level Dialogue and the 2016 UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants. He previously served as co-chair, grand rapporteur and common space moderator at summits of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), and chaired the Entrepreneurship Committee of the GFMD Business Mechanism.

Prof. Gibril Faal was the first visiting professor in practice at the LSE Institute of Global Affairs in 2017. He was previously a lecturer on The Open University's MSc programme on Global Development Management, and external evaluator of COMPAS, University of Oxford. He was a board member of EC-UN Joint Migration & Development Initiative and the Global Poverty Action Fund of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Since 1998, he had accepted UK public function appointments made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for International Development, the Lord Chancellor, and the Home Secretary. In 2004, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and part-time magistrate, and in 2014 he was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to international development, having been nominated by DFID. Prof. Faal studied at five universities in London and has multiple academic and professional qualifications.

Expertise Details

• African economics and business; Migration; Diaspora and development; Technology in migration; Sustainable development; Policy development and implementation; Negotiations; Diplomacy and multilateralism; Social enterprise; Gambian political economy