The Africa program of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace has announced the addition of Dr. Gilles Yabi to the program. A statement to that effect by Zainab Usman, Director and Senior Fellow of the Africa Program explained that D. Yabi would be serving as a nonresident fellow, his work focusing on West Africa, with particular reference to political and governance issues but also on the role and influence of external actors in the region.
He has previously worked as the Senior Political Analyst and later as West Africa Project Director of the International Crisis Group, the conflict prevention focused think tank. He is equally credited with leading the research, policy, advocacy, and media work of Crisis Group in West Africa, working particularly on the political crises and conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Nigeria.
Besides, Dr. Yabi has also worked as a journalist for the Paris based weekly, Jeune Afrique. He is the author of dozens of articles and book chapters on African political and economic issues and hosts the weekly column “Ça fait débat avec WATHI” on Radio France Internationale (RFI). WATHI – the West Africa Citizen Think Tank launched in 2015 is held up as a unique participative and multidisciplinary citizen-focused think tank on West African issues (www.wathi.org) which he founded and was CEO.
The new resource person is coming in with a PhD in development economics from the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France in addition to a Master’s Degree in International Economics from the University of Paris 1 Sorbonne.
