As the ACTIVE™ Program Director at African People & Wildlife (APW), Alais Ole-Morindat pursues new opportunities for the ACTIVE™ Community Engagement program while managing ongoing partnerships and ACTIVE™ outreach commitments. These include high-profile work with the Tanzanian National Parks Authority, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, the Wildlife Division, the Aid by Trade Foundation, and the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project in Angola and Botswana. In 2024, Alais was recognized as a National Geographic Explorer for his work to build climate resilience in pastoralist communities.
Hailing from a local village near the Noloholo Environmental Center, Alais is a lifelong pastoralist who has worked in the environment and development field in Tanzania for more than thirty years. Prior to his role with APW, he worked as a consultant to and coordinator of the project entitled Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Drylands Development Planning in Tanzania. The project was funded by UK AID through an accountable grant to the Tanzania Natural Resources Forum and Hakikazi Catalyst, a Tanzanian civil society organization. Previously, Alais served as a program advisor to the project Strengthening Communities’ Voices in Shaping Policies for Sustainable Environmental Management and Poverty Reduction in the Drylands of Tanzania (also known as Strengthening Voices). The project is a collaborative effort between the Kimmage Development Studies Centre (KDSC) in Dublin, Ireland, and the International Institute on Development and Environment (IIED).
Prior to his work on Strengthening Voices, Alais held a number of diverse positions. He served as the Policy Dialogue Consultant to the ERETO Pastoralist Project in Ngorongoro, the Governance Advisor for the Embassy of Ireland in Dar es Salaam, and the District Development Advisor with Irish Aid programs in Tanzania. Alais also worked as a Senior Lecturer at the MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation for over twelve years, helping to develop the course Pastoralism and Policy Options in Eastern Africa. He continues this role today as a part-time lecturer at KDSC in Ireland. He has served on a number of NGO boards, including as President of the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania from 2002–2009 and as Chairman of the Board Directors of the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum. He was also the Board Chair for Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT). Alais was nominated as an independent member of the DAC Network on Poverty Reduction (POVNET) of OECD, which is based in Paris. His years of work on research, training, conservation and development, and policy analysis have enabled civil society in East Africa to develop tools for policy advocacy and governance.