tralac Advisory Board

Paulina Mbala Elago is a Namibian National with over 20 years of professional experience in international trade, primarily trade policy, regional integration, trade facilitation, investment environment reforms, trade-related capacity building, and trade-related infrastructure development. She currently serves as Executive Secretary of SACU, having assumed this position on 1 April 2014. Prior to this appointment, she acted as Country Director for Tanzania for Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), where she was responsible for designing, managing and implementing TMEA’s multi-million dollar country programme for Tanzania to support regional integration and trade competitiveness. She has also served as Deputy Chief of Party for the Southern Africa Global Competitiveness Hub in Gaborone, Botswana; Economic Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London; and as Chief Trade Negotiator for the Government of Namibia.

Gerhard Erasmus is a founder of tralac and Professor Emeritus of the Law Faculty at the University of Stellenbosch. He holds degrees from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (B.Iuris, LL.B), Leiden in the Netherlands (LLD) and a Master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has consulted for governments, the private sector and regional organisations in southern Africa. He has also been involved in the drafting of the South African and Namibian constitutions. He currently serves as a tralac Associate.

Paul Kalenga is an independent trade adviser and consultant. He has extensive working experience in international trade policy and regional integration issues in Africa, having spent several years as a Senior Trade Policy Adviser at the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, providing technical assistance on the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade; negotiations on the SADC-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA); and the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) and regional economic integration matters. He holds a degree in economics from the University of the Western Cape, honours degree in industrial and organisational psychology from the University of Cape Town, and an M.Sc degree in trade, industrialisation and economic policy from the University of Strathclyde. He currently serves as a tralac Associate and consultant as well as being a member of tralac’s Advisory Board.

Patrick Low, a Kenyan and Spanish national, is a Fellow at the Asia Global Institute of the University of Hong Kong and a Senior Adviser for Tulip Consulting. He currently works in an advisory capacity and as a consultant. From 2013-2016 he was Vice-President of research at the Fung Global Institute, Hong Kong, and taught at the University of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2019. He worked for the World Trade Organization from 1995, first on trade in services and then from 1997 to 2013 as the WTO’s Chief Economist. Between 1987 and 1995 he taught at the Colegio de México (1987-1990), and worked in the research arm of the World Bank in Washington D.C. (1990-1994). He was with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (precursor to WTO) from 1980 to 1987. He holds a PhD in economics from Sussex University and has written widely on trade and trade-related issues.

Daniel B. Ndlela is with Zimconsult in Zimbabwe. He has taught economics at the University of Zimbabwe, served as senior regional advisor in economic cooperation and regional integration at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Daniel Ndlela has worked in most sub-regions of Africa: West Africa, North Africa, East and Sothern Africa, mainly on economic development, trade policy, industrialisation and regional economic cooperation, and integration issues. He has published widely mainly on economic development, industrialisation and trade policy issues. He recent and current publication ‘Economic Dualism in Zimbabwe: From Colonial Rhodesia to Post-Independence’ addresses economic dualism that was embraced and perpetrated by the post independent African state, with the modern formal sector linked to the global economy through exports, imports, foreign direct investment and technology leaving the ‘traditional’ sector behind.

Tom Pengelly has over 25 years experience of economic development co-operation in Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean. Between 1993 and 2001, Tom worked for the UK Department for International Development in London and overseas. Between 1999 and 2001, he was chief technical adviser for DFID’s trade related assistance programmes and served as a Special Adviser to OECD-DAC on guidelines for trade capacity development 2000-2001. In consultancy practice since 2002, he has undertaken assignments for wide range of clients including DFID, the World Bank, the European Commission, Sida, DANIDA, USAID, AusAid, ITC, WTO, WIPO, the European Patent Office, the UK IP Office, SECO, UNIDO, UNDP, ICTSD and UNCTAD.