Mr John Rocha was the Coordinator of the Regional Spatial Development Initiative Programme (RSDIP) at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The RSDIP was funded by the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa and specialized in the identification, scoping, development of large-scale economic projects and requisite infrastructure.

During his tenure at the DBSA, Mr Rocha was required to coordinate and oversee the work of multidisciplinary teams of consultants in the preparation and development of projects in the agricultural, petrochemical, infrastructure sector. Before joining the DBSA, John Rocha was a Senior Project Manager at the NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF). Over the past 20 years, Mr Rocha has been very active in helping to shape African policies and initiatives through his role as administrator, consultant, development practitioner, policy analyst and researcher for various Pan-African organizations such as Africa Policy Institute (API), African Union, SaferAfrica and NEPAD Secretariat. As the Committees Secretary at the NEPAD Secretariat,

Mr Rocha was intimately involved in providing administrative and strategic support to the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee, NEPAD Steering Committee, the NEPAD Management Committee as well as the Africa Partnership Forum.

He was also the Founding President of Angola 2000, a non-profit organization that specialized in raising awareness and promoting the disarmament of the civilian population in Angola, including the implementation of projects related to peace building, non-violent means of conflict resolution, democracy, electoral support etc. His main areas of expertise are peace and security, natural resources governance and management, project development and management, policy advisory, economic development planning and regional economic integration. Mr. Rocha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human and Social Studies with specialization in Government, Administration and Development from the University of South Africa (UNISA).