Gibson Saul Zulu

Gibson has an undergraduate History degree from the University of Zambia. His 9-year career with UNHCR in Zambia, Liberia and Ethiopia respectively commenced in the Mayukwayukwa Refugee Settlement where he conducted resettlement interviews of Congolese and Somalis for resettlement to the Global North. He helped fifty refugee dropouts get back into secondary school via resource mobilization from UNHCR’s Youth Initiative Fund.

Gibson later assumed oversight of the Local Integration programme for former Angolan refugees in the Meheba Refugee Settlement and facilitated their unfettered access to documentation, housing and livelihoods. He played a pivotal role in the demarcation of 1000+ plots for an agricultural settlement and lobbied Barrick Gold to donate 100 water tanks to refugees for irrigation and brick molding.

He then spent 5 years implementing local integration and voluntary repatriation of Ivorian refugees and participated in the design of the Multi-Year, Multi-Partner Protection and Solutions Framework for Liberia. Gibson led the transition of refugee health, education and social programmes from UNHCR to the Maryland County government in Harper. His leadership during the COVID 19 pandemic won a UN award and publication in the Oxford Forced Migration magazine.

In Ethiopia, he led ten staff implementing refugee status determination and resettlement for Sudanese, South Sudanese and Congolese refugees and secured the donation of STEM books and a pledge for seeds for beneficiaries in Sherkole Refugee Camp.

After graduation, Gibson plans to assume policy and leadership roles in the Peace, Humanitarian and Development Nexus to explore political and development solutions to conflict and forced displacement and lobby for adequate funding for education and livelihoods in forgotten crises. He mulls being a mentor, lecturing on human rights, peacebuilding and assisting Rotary Clubs to submit phenomenal global grant applications for service projects.