Edel Were is an independent Strategy Consultant working in the development space, with a
focus on employment, entrepreneurship, and education in Africa. Edel sits on the Board
and serves as a mentor and judge at SOMO, an organization that provides business
development support and financing to budding entrepreneurs in underserved areas. She also
co-founded Buyu Afrika, a collective that seeks to make African history mainstream and easily
accessible. At Dalberg Advisors she was a Senior Consultant and Co-Lead of the Education
and Employment platform. As part of her role, she advised government and non-government
organizations in various sectors such as agriculture, health, energy and education. She is also
passionate about building young creative talent and has published an anthology of poems and
stories of a group of promising African writers. Prior to joining Dalberg, Edel worked at IBM
Research Africa. Edel was one of 1,000 young leaders chosen to attend the global innovation
lab, UNLEASH, in 2017 and was asked to serve as a facilitator in 2019. She was also part of
the team that organized TEDx Kilimani in 2017.