My involvement with AWARD has increased my leadership skills and prepared me to use these skills beyond Mozambique and beyond Africa. My goal is to improve the accounting of natural resources in eastern and southern Africa by formulating environmental policies and then seeing them through to local implementation. Before obtaining my PhD I lectured in forestry management and engineering at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. Upon graduating I worked for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as their country program coordinator in Mozambique, and then became their regional forestry program coordinator. From 2006 to 2010 I worked from both Maputo and Nairobi as a consultant on natural resources and on management and policy analysis for a number of organizations, including the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, IUCN, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).