Nafeesat Rabiu-Adebayo · PhD · PMP · PMI-ACP · AWS · Wharton
Program Manager. Strategist. Translator. Bridging institutional expertise and human need from the field to the boardroom.
Let's TalkAbout
Between the engineer and the farmer. Between the donor and the beneficiary. Between the data and the human being behind it. Between the ancient manuscript and the modern reader.
Her work is translation. Not the linguistic kind, but the deeper kind, where expertise becomes accessible, strategy becomes action, and the people most affected by a system finally have someone in the room who speaks both languages fluently.
Trained in Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with a PhD in Development Economics, Nafeesat brings four degrees, eight years of high-stakes execution, and an unwavering belief that the gap between institutional power and human need is never an accident. It is a failure of translation. And translation is what she does.
"The gap between institutional power and human need is never an accident. It is a failure of translation."
Nafeesat Rabiu-Adebayo
What We Do
End-to-end ownership of programs and projects from inception to delivery. Strategic planning, operating model design, risk management, stakeholder coordination, and the kind of meticulous execution that gets things done on time, within scope, and beyond expectation.
End-to-end design, management, and evaluation of multi-stakeholder programs. From Theory of Change to final readout, with the kind of honest analysis that actually reshapes decisions.
Original research using mixed methods, econometric modeling, and qualitative fieldwork. Built for donors, governments, and foundations who need independent thinking, not recycled literature.
Strategies that survive contact with the communities they are designed for. Grounded in years of on-the-ground work across West Africa, international institutions, and global development programs.
Raising the analytical and delivery standards of teams through hands-on training in research methodologies, evidence-based decision making, and program execution frameworks.
Translating dense institutional work into narratives that move people. For organizations that need their rigorous work to be understood, believed, and acted upon.
The Work
Program Evaluation · International Development
Independently designed and executed a complete evaluation framework from scratch for a multi-government trade program with no existing methodology, producing findings that reshaped how the initiative understood its own results.
Product Ownership · AgriTech
Stood between IBM's engineering team and 500+ smallholder farmers as the sole Product Owner. Personally tested every prototype in the field, walked back into the engineering room, and reframed what she had seen into priorities the team could execute. The result was 25% adoption growth and a 30% improvement in end-user income.
Operations · National Program
Designed and ran nationwide logistics operations serving 50,000+ end users across 20 locations, managing a real-time GPS control room and building inter-agency partnerships across federal ministries, state governments, and private distributors with competing incentives.
Research · Academic Collaboration
PhD dissertation that cracked open a paradox at the heart of global aid policy. Building an original dataset from scratch, the research revealed that aid simultaneously increases trade costs and improves export performance, a finding with direct implications for how billions in development finance are structured and deployed.
Insights
Research, writing, and public conversations at the intersection of systems, people, and the distance between them.
YouTube · Global Platform
A global public education platform reaching 29,000+ viewers across 22 countries, translating economic systems and cultural patterns through AI-enabled production. New episodes on the logic behind the world we live in.
Book · Published 2026
A translated and annotated collection of over 300 classical Arabic aphorisms. Centuries of wisdom on character, knowledge, and governance made accessible to contemporary readers.
Book · Forthcoming
A narrative nonfiction account of what development cannot change. Translating doctoral research on Aid-for-Trade effectiveness into accessible institutional analysis for policymakers, practitioners, and curious readers alike.
Recognition & Scholarship
Summer Fellow & Graduate Fellow
United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA), Washington DC · 2021 – 2022
Conducted policy research and data analysis on UN issues, developed sustainable multilateral solutions considering political underpinnings and interconnected global factors.
Global SDG Advocate and Practitioner
Distinguished Speaker on SDG 1 & 11 for GBR, United Kingdom · 2023
Johannes M. Botes Capstone Achievement Award
Academic excellence in Capstone project, United States · 2022
Laurence Short Academic Award for International Students
United States · 2021 – 2022
Featherstone Foundation College Award
United States · 2021
Most Versatile Female, Faculty of Agriculture
University of Ilorin, Nigeria · Class of 2014
PhD Thesis · Published 2025
Rabiu-Adebayo, Nafeesat Adejoke (2025). The Aid for Trade Paradox: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Trade Costs and Agricultural Export Performance in Nigeria. University of East Anglia. View at UEA Repository
Rabiu-Adebayo, N. A. (2023). Commissioned Book Review: Constantine Michalopoulos, Aid, Trade and Development: The Future of Globalization. Political Studies Review.
Adefalu et al. (2018). Effects of Goat Theft on Women Farmers in Rural Communities of Kwara State, Nigeria. Bangladesh Journal of Extension Education, 30(1), 17–26.
Adefalu et al. (2016). Assessment of UNICEF programs in rural communities of Kwara State. Annals of Child and Youth Studies, 7(2), 1–16.
University of East Anglia, UK · June 2023
Panelist, Work in Progress: Promoting Postgraduate Research in the Social Sciences.
University of Manchester, UK · January 2023
Panelist, Politics of Development Studies Conference: Emerging Research on The Politics of Aid and Development Cooperation.
University of Baltimore, USA · May 2022
Virtual Conference, A New Outlook to the Atrocities: Comfort Women and What Remains.
Utrecht University Netherlands Centre for Global Challenges · June 2020
Panelist, COVID-19 Webinar: Opportunity or Risk for a Sustainability Transition of Our Economies?
University of Ilorin, Nigeria · June 2016
Panelist, 13th National Research Conference and Network Meeting of CYIAP.
PMP · PMI-ACP
Project Management Institute
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Amazon Web Services
Generative AI for Project Managers · AI-Powered Workflow Automation
Project Management Institute
Strategic Management: Business Strategy and Connected Strategy
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania · 2023
Unlocking Investment and Finance in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
The World Bank Group · 2022
e-Learning on Digital Agriculture
The World Bank Group · 2022
Macroeconomics of Climate Change: Science, Economics, and Policies
International Monetary Fund · 2022
Foundational Primer on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
UN System Staff College · 2021
Get In Touch
Whether you need a rigorous evaluation, a strategic framework, or someone who can walk into the gap between your institution and the people it serves, this is the conversation to have.
Henderson, Nevada · Available for Remote & Global Engagements