June 19, 2021

- Gilles Yabi

Gilles Olakounlé Yabi is a political analyst and has a doctorate in development economics. He is the founder and president of WATHI, a West African citizen think tank (www.wathi.org). WATHI, whose name evokes both the West Africa Citizen Think Tank and the notion of time, waati in the Bamanakan language of Mali, is an open platform for the production and exchange of ideas, knowledge and the formulation of courses of action to transform West African societies. Gilles Yabi worked as a senior political analyst for Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, then as director of the West Africa office of the International Crisis Group, an international non-governmental organization that works to prevent and resolve armed conflict.

D. in development economics from the University of Clermont-Ferrand (France), Gilles Yabi also worked as a journalist for the weekly magazine Jeune Afrique in Paris before moving to Dakar, Senegal. He lived in Bamako, Mali in 2009-2010 where he was an independent consultant in the fields of conflict analysis, security and political governance in West Africa. A Beninese national, he has been a regular contributor to the international media for the past fifteen years on issues of peace, security, political and economic governance in West Africa. He hosts the weekly column “ça fait débat avec WATHI” broadcast on Radio France Internationale (RFI) since September 2019.