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Economic and Legal Section Staff

Daniel Dumas

As an Adviser and Head of Economic & Legal Section in the Special Advisory Services Division, Daniel Dumas oversees the section, as well as activities related to Natural Resources, Maritimes Boundaries, Trade and Capital Markets. His own area of expertise is in natural resources development, more specifically oil and gas.  

In addition, Daniel has extensive experience in power, regulation and energy markets restructuring.   With a strong background in finance, financial evaluation and in negotiations, he has successfully participated and assisted in various transactions in the energy sector, in particular in Independent Power Producer projects.
 
One of Daniel’s most recent successes is the conceptual and detailed design of a Petroleum Revenue Management Fund.

Joshua Brien

Joshua is a legal adviser in the Economic and Legal Section of the Special Advisory Services Division. He provides legal and policy advice to Commonwealth member countries on matters concerning maritime boundaries and natural resources.

Joshua is a public international law specialist. He has extensive experience in the conduct of maritime boundary negotiations and has participated in international law cases involving Australia brought before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and the International Court of Justice.

 Prior to joining the Secretariat, Joshua served as a senior lawyer in the Office of International Law in the Australian Attorney-General’s Department from 1999 to 2005.

 

Kathy-Ann Brown

As a Legal Adviser within the Special Advisory Services Division, Kathy-Ann provides technical assistance to vulnerable developing countries in sequencing trade-related policy reforms consistent with their strategic development objectives, regional trading commitments and World Trade Organisation rules.

The implementation of World Trade Organisation flexibility measures is a key element of her work and she works closely with small states and Least Developed Countries, in particular, in defining trade measures and trade-related investment attraction regimes with a view to enhancing the gains to be achieved from successful integration into the multilateral trading system; an area of recent prominence within her work programme concerns TRIPS and access to medicines. Dr. Brown has also engaged in more general advisory activities and, in this regard, has acted as legal adviser in trade disputes and served as a panellist in WTO dispute settlement proceedings.

Kathy-Ann has 20 years experience both academic and practical legal experience.

 

John Gara

John is a Legal Adviser in the Economic and Legal Section of the Special Advisory Services Division.

He is part of a team that operates as an in-house consultancy service, offering policy, legal and economic advice and assistance on investment and trade related matters.

While he deals with a broad range of legal issues, John’s specialised area of focus is the provision of legal advice for client governments to formulate polices, implement necessary legislative measures and effectively engage in investment negotiations for the development of petroleum and mineral resources.

 

Judy Ndaona

As Legal Adviser in the Special Advisory Services Division, Judy’s work is focused on providing legal, policy and regulatory advice to Commonwealth member governments and regional organizations on the law of the sea and related matters.

She has extensive experience in international maritime boundary delimitation negotiations, reviewing of maritime areas legislation and regulatory instruments, and joint development arrangements for the exploitation of non – living natural resources in disputed maritime areas.

Her accomplishments include participating in Commonwealth governments’ maritime boundary negotiations with third states; advising on joint development areas; designing and proposing new maritime areas legislation; and designing and conducting capacity – building training workshops on maritime boundary delimitation negotiations for client government’s officials.

Victor Kitange

As Economic Adviser in the Special Advisory Services Division, Victor’s work is focused on providing economic, regulatory, and policy advice related to oil, gas, power, and mining investment and promotion.

He has extensive experience in international benchmarking of petroleum and mining fiscal regimes, and financial and economic computer modeling skills, as well as negotiation skills on oil, gas, power, and mining investment transactions.

His accomplishments include designing and proposing petroleum fiscal regimes, drafting petroleum taxation laws, and designing and conducting training workshops on financial and economic computer modeling and negotiation of oil and gas investment for member governments.