Niagalé Bagayoko-Penone Chair
Dr. Niagalé Bagayoko-Penone was the Programme Manager for the Maintenance and Consolidation of Peace Programme of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF). She has conducted extensive field research in several francophone African countries, much of it anchoring on the interface between security and development. She has been a lecturer at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) - University of Sussex (UK) and the Institute of Political Studies in Paris; an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Research and Education on Strategy and Technology (USCREST); and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) in France. In 2003, she won the Prize for Scientific Research awarded by the French Ministry of Defence. She has also been a consultant for the African Union; the Department for International Aid (DFID); the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT); the Centre for Study of the Social Science of Defence (C2SD); and the French Ministry of Defence.
Lt Col (Rtd) Jerry Kitiku, Vice Chair
Jerry Kitiku is the Director of the Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC-Kenya), a non-profit think tank that provides data and information on human security and the security sector in Kenya, the wider Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. A retired Kenya Navy officer, Lt Col Kitiku is an expert on human security dynamics and conflict. He has both command and administrative experience at senior levels in the military and was a senior instructor at the Defence Staff College (DSC) in Nairobi. In the early 2000s, he was among a team of experts that crafted an Implementation Plan and Agenda for Action, on request by the Kenya Government, for the Nairobi Declarations on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). He was also part of a research team that conducted national surveys on the problem of SALW and the development of national action plans in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Lt Col Kitiku also served for many years as a security attaché in various Kenyan diplomatic missions abroad
Eboe Hutchful, Executive Secretary
Prof. Eboe Hutchful is a retired professor of African Studies. He last taught at the Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Previously, he taught at several other universities in Africa and North America, including the University of Toronto, Trent and Waterloo Universities in Ontario, the University of Ghana and the University of Port Harcourt. He is a long-time researcher on civil-military relations, security sector reform, and international development issues. He is the author of Ghana’s Adjustment Experience: The Paradox of Reform (James Currey, 2002), co-editor (with Wuyi Omitoogun) of Budgeting for the Military Sector in Africa: the Processes and Mechanisms of Control (Oxford University Press, 2006), and co-editor (with Abdoulaye Bathily) of The Military and Militarism in Africa (Codesria Books, 1998). Professor Hutchful was a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM) and more recently, the Advisory Board of the Knowledge Platform for Security and Rule of Law (KPRSL). He was also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF); the UN International Policing Advisory Council (IPAC); the Governing Board of the Global Consortium for Security Transformation (GCST); and the Advisory Group of the (erstwhile) Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR).
Uju Agomoh Regional Coordinator, West Africa
Dr. Uju Agomoh is the founder and director of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), a Security, Justice and Development focused NGO with regional/continental initiatives in several African Countries. She has served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria (NHRC) and was the Commission's Special Rapporteur on Police, Prisons and Centres of Detention (2001-2008). She has also been a member of the Nigerian Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (2006-2009); Member of the coordinating committee of the Association of Security Sector Education and Training (ASSET); Council Member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT); Board Member of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA); and Chair of the ICPA Developing Countries Committee. Dr Agomoh is also a Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria Institute for Development Studies (IDS). Her recent research work has focussed on the topics of Gender and the Criminal Justice System, Sustainability of Penal Reform Interventions and Management of Pre-trial Detention, Mentally-ill Detainees, Prison-based and Community-Based Re-entry Programmes, and the Prevention of Torture.
Medhane Tadesse Regional Coordinator, Horn of Africa
Medhane Tadesse is a specialist on African Peace and Security. He has taught at various universities in Ethiopia and abroad and has written extensively on African security and related topics, spawning four books, over 160 briefing papers, articles, commentaries and policy memos. More recently, he has been a Visiting Professor at the School of Global Studies, Kings College, London, lectureship on the Governance of Security. A lot of his work has dwelt the pertinent issues of regime stability, vulnerability to conflict, ethnic conflict, armed violence, globalised security and diplomacy, militarisation, governance and humanitarian crisis in Africa. Professor Tadesse has served as a consultant to several African governments, international and inter-governmental organisations on issues relating to peace and stability. He runs the Peace and Security Studies Directorate at the Centre for Policy Research and Dialogue (CPRD) in Juba, South Sudan. He is also a columnist and frequent commentator on global and regional security issues, and is the editor of The Current Analyst, an online journal that examines issues of peace and security in Africa..
Dr Kossi Mawuli AGOKLA Member
Dr Kossi Mawuli AGOKLA is a Togolese national and a senior public law professor. He graduated in International Relations and Public Administration. He has served in high positions in the Togolese administration, notably, twice as Secretary General of the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Internal Security and as Special Advisor to the Prime Minister in charge of reforms.
More especially, he served as an international civil servant in the OAU (now AU), ECOWAS, UEMOA as Secretary General of the Commission for the first mandate, etc. At the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC), he led the African Security Sector Reform Program (ASSEREP) for almost 6 years implementing mostly in Francophone African countries programs on defence and security forces, Law enforcement related to electoral processes; Strategic and operational plans; SALW including stockpile management; Gender issues on National Action Plans on UNSCR 1325 and Gender Policy paper; Civilian and military relations; democratic control of the security sector; monitoring of national SSR processes etc.
Dr AGOKLA has participated in and facilitated several workshops in Europe and throughout Africa on SSR issues and has contributed to several publications, articles and tools on SSR and has collaborated with many institutions: UN, AU, EU, ECOWAS, OIF, DCAF, ISS, KAIPTC, GRIP etc.
He has been an active member of the ASSN over the past decade and has conducted some of its major activities.
Emile Ouedraogo Member
Dr. Emile Ouedraogo is an adjunct professor of practice at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, specializing in issues related to national security strategy development and security sector reform and governance. Since 2007, he has worked with the Africa Center on more than 30 activities as a speaker, facilitator, and author. He also works with AFRICOM, Partners Global, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Erbet Stiftung, and the ECOWAS Parliament. He is a member of the African Security Sector Network and founding President of the Fondation pour la Sécurité du Citoyen (FOSEC) of Burkina Faso. Prior to joining the Africa Center, in 2017-18, Dr. Ouedraogo completed a six-month mission with the African Union as a security sector reform and governance expert for Madagascar. As Minister of Security of Burkina Faso from 2008 to 2011, he initiated and developed a Homeland Security Strategy and operationalized the concept of community policing and community participation in the management of security issues. After 30 years of service with the Burkina Faso Army, he retired from active duty in 2012 as a Colonel, having served in positions including Aide to the Prime Minister, Support Regiment Commanding Officer, and Chief of the Military Intelligence Division at the Army General Staff. Dr. Ouedraogo was a parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Burkina Faso and the ECOWAS Parliament, where he sat on the Political Affairs, Peace, Defense, and Security Committees. In this capacity, he carried out informative and investigative missions in most of ECOWAS’ 15 countries. He earned a Ph.D. with honors from the Center for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris, France, on security sector reform and governance in the ECOWAS Region.
Sean Tait Member
Sean Tait is the founder and Director of APCOF. He holds a degree in Criminology from the University of Cape Town. He is a former Director of the Criminal Justice Initiative at the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, and the former Executive Director of a South African non-governmental organization Urban Monitoring and Awareness Committee (UMAC). His areas of expertise include policing, police accountability, crime prevention, conflict resolution and peace building.
