I am currently in my 7th year of working with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which is a small, independent agency of the US government (USG).  I am based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire where I serve as the interim Team Leader for the development of a $300 million regional compact focused on the energy sector.  I relocated to Abidjan in October 2022 after the previous project I was working on for MCC in Burkina Faso (also in the energy sector) had to be abandoned following the January 2022 coup d’état there, leading to the disqualification of the country for USG foreign assistance. 

The ‘regional’ aspects of the current project I am working on come from our collaboration on compact development with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and two of its regional energy entities (the West Africa Power Pool of Cotonou, Benin and the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority of Accra, Ghana).

Before joining MCC, I was the Chief of Party on a USAID-funded project - a regional food security project implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Center in Burkina Faso.

Earlier, after having "timed out" of the U.S. Peace Corps at 8.5 years in December 2013, I began working as a Chief of Party on the Central Africa Forest Ecosystems Conservation Project for Conservation International in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  My major responsibilities include managing all aspects of the implementation of a 5-year $13.6 million Cooperative Agreement with USAID, including program management, administration of project resources, human resources management and staff capacity building.

This project is part of the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), which is USAID's largest biodiversity conservation program in the world.  While CARPE covers the entire Congo Basin, the particular area (or 'landscape') where I am working consists of 10 million hectares (the size of Virginia) of tropical rainforest in eastern DRC - mostly in North and South Kivu Provinces, adjacent to Rwanda.  [The photo is taken at a place called "Tchibati Falls" which are in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, about 40 kilometers northwest of Bukavu, South Kivu Province, which is in our project zone.] I am based in Kinshasa but travel often to our regional office in Goma as well as to nearby field sites.  Working at the nexus of environmental and livelihood issues, in an area with significant security challenges, has proven to be very interesting.  Eastern DRC is a very complicated place with unique challenges, but the work there also has its rewards.  There is much to do and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to make a contribution. [2-15]

In addition to my MCC work, in my free time for the past year I have served as a virtual instructor for a two-semester graduate-level ‘Global Capstone’ course in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.  I assist and guide students in the identification of client organizations and then in conducting in-depth policy analysis and field research on global challenges of concern to the client organizations. [1-24]

Although work doesn't leave me much time, I did manage to publish my dissertation in he form of a book; Lemurs, Landscapes, and Livelihoods: The Political Ecology of Biodiversity Conservation in Madagascar, from Lambert Academic Publishing.

Email: msimsik@gmail.com