Isabelle Ramdoo
Director, IGF
Isabelle Ramdoo is the Director of the IISD-hosted Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development (IGF). She is responsible for overseeing the Secretariat's operations and executing its mission.
An economist with over 25 years of experience in trade and industrial policies, Ramdoo has extensive expertise in trade negotiations across Eastern and Southern Africa. Prior to being named Director in 2025, she served as IGF Deputy Director since 2020 and led key IGF initiatives, notably on critical minerals and socio-economic benefits.
Prior to joining IISD, she worked as a senior investment and linkages advisor at the African Minerals Development Centre/ United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, where she supported African governments in developing strategic linkages and supply chains to promote economic transformation, in line with the Africa Mining Vision. Prior to that, she was the Deputy Head of Programme at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in the Netherlands, where she led two workstreams, trade and extractive industries work stream respectively in the Economic Transformation and Trade programme. She has published extensively on trade and on various dimensions of the extractive sector, in particular on local content and industrial diversification.