Anna Da Silva is the Regional Director for Africa at the BBC World Service Trust.
Before deciding to become a journalist, Anna worked as a teacher in South Africa, and for the British Council in the Palestinian West Bank.
She began her journalism career as a radio producer in the Arabic Service of the BBC World Service, before being sent to Angola as the BBC's correspondent, where she also reported for Reuters, the Economist and the Independent.
Over a period of five years working in Angola, Anna increasingly combined journalism with humanitarian research, producing UN policy papers on Internal Displacement, War Trauma, Negotiated Humanitarian Access, Resource Conflicts, and Children in Conflict.
While working for Medecins Sans Frontieres as a Humanitarian Affairs Advisor, Anna also edited a book of first person testimonies about the Angolan war.
Anna moved into the field of communications for development when she joined the UN's IRIN to set up a humanitarian radio project encompassing training, factual programming and radio drama for Southern Africa.
Since joining the BBC World Service Trust, Anna has designed and set up projects in Darfur, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Burundi and DRC.
Anna has a degree in Russian and Arabic and a Masters in International Relations.