John Baptist Onama was born in Lacor, Uganda. He has a solid background in the field of EU development co-operation policies, thanks to his direct participation in study missions and project fieldwork experiences in Kenya, Uganda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Ireland and Romania. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Padua, yet he has been often called to conduct lectures on EU Project Cycle Management techniques both in Italy and abroad. He is Founder member and Chairman of the Italian Research Association for Sustainable Development Initiatives (IRASDI) and Vice Chairman of Incontro fra i Popoli NGO. He is the author of several publications such as «Africa Fifty Years After Decolonisation», «Development Cooperation and Gender Empowerment», «Decentralised Cooperation and Sustainable Urban Development», «Witnessing in Awareness» for UNICEF, «Promoting the International Cooperation Capacity of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)». He is a member of the Council for Dignity, Forgiveness, Justice and Reconciliation in Rome. He was Quality Board member in the EU Uni-Key Project. In 2012, he was part of the Committee for the Revision of the Development Cooperation Guidelines on Minors, developed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2009 to 2011 he worked on the Implementation of the law on Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation.