Côte d’Ivoire

Désiré Stéphane BAI has six years of experience in Media and Journalism. He has worked as a communication practitioner at both assistant and managerial levels in Ivory Coast. He has focused his education and career plans in the area of Mass Communications, with the purpose of promoting equality, inclusive growth, and democracy in his country. He holds a BA in Journalism from the Institute of Communication Sciences and Technologies (ISTC). He has worked as a Web Journalist for an Africa-centered online media outlet, and later as Communications Officer for a government project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He helped the ‘’National Program for Supporting Institutional Reforms and State Modernization’’ reach its target population and gain more visibility. This experience increased his interest in M4D (Media for Development). In 2020, he launched Afriquobs, an online media project designed to promote local changemakers and advocate for active citizen participative democracy and human rights in Africa. He has also engaged in voluntary missionary service in Nigeria, which gave him the opportunity of working with people from different countries and cultural backgrounds. He learned from this experience the values of diversity and inclusion, of which he has since become an active defender. Stéphane BAI is passionate about literature, history, news, geopolitics and music.

Suzanne N’Gouandi has five years of experience in the communication and non-profit sectors. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics and a Certificate in Corporate Communication. She is currently working as the Communication Officer for SOCODEVI on the multi-country project PROCED design to support the development of model, inclusive and sustainable cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Ghana. Suzanne’s work consists in coordinating the implementation of the project communication strategy and participating in the reinforcement of cooperatives’ external and internal communications. As an advocate for girls’ education, she has also been volunteering for five years through SEPHIS foundation to promote women’s leadership and rights through conferences and workshops. She leads the SEPHIS International program aimed at engaging young women from everywhere in the implementation of SDGs in their communities.

Soraya Dieng is a jurist with over two years of experience in human rights in Côte d’Ivoire. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Law from the West Africa Catholic University of Abidjan and a Master’s degree in Ethics and Governance majoring in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action from the Research and Action Peace Center in Abidjan. She is a jurist at the National Tobacco, Alcoholism, Substance Addiction Control program. She focuses on writing legal texts related to addiction, ensuring the right to health of injecting drug users and sensitizing stakeholders to the legal aspects of tobacco control. Through thai work, she has acquired a solid knowledge of health law, particularly in terms of access to health for vulnerable populations, and developed her project coordination skills and strengthened her analysis skills. Previously, Soraya worked as a jurist at a child foster center on a project related to the assistance of minor victims of sexual violence, and for a Catholic NGO caring for street children. Soraya has volunteered as a jurist for NGOs fighting against sexual feminine mutilations, child protection, forced marriages, and all types of gender-based violence in Côte d’Ivoire. Through these experiences, she developed a strong knowledge of human rights mechanisms, project coordination and sensitization skills. Soraya enjoys focusing on human rights issues and defending children and women’s rights.

Amos KLA is from Cote d’Ivoire and is a training Computer Application Developer. He is in the process of obtaining his Executive Master’s degree in Engineering Option Data. He has four years of experience in Information Technology, including at an international recruitment firm Empower Talents & Careers in Ivory Coast, where he helped street musicians to live off their talents with his Ivoireflow music promotion platform. As an IT developer, he was involved in the entire IT project cycle: design, production, and maintenance. He is currently IT Manager in this recruitment firm. Through these experiences, he developed many qualities such as rigor, professionalism, sense of organization, and adaptability, as well as strong project coordination and implementation skills. He enjoys focusing on the topics of culture and technology, and has a strong passion for youth empowerment. He was laureate of AYADA Lab, which is a Franco-German incubation program carried by the French Institute and the Goethe Institute which allowed him to attend training and participate in networking across Ghana, Nigeria, France and Germany..

Aléré Kouakou is an education development practitioner and an innovator in the phone repair sector. He also graduated with a Master’s degree in Science of Education from ‘’ENS’’ (Institute of Education). After working for over four years in the education sector, he set up his NGO called ALeREAI, which stands for: Aid and Leadership for Rural Education Access Initiative. Currently, he works in civil service as a teacher and is the Country Director of Orion Edutech, an Indian training center. He committed to practicing education development for vulnerable people over the past two years due to two gap academic years in schools and COVID-19. He has been promoting access to vocational training, such as phone repairing courses, on the mission of reshaping quality education in Cote d’Ivoire.