Gilles Yabi

Political analyst and doctor in development economics, Dr Gilles Olakounlé Yabi is the founder and president of WATHI, a citizen think tank in West Africa. 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, for knowledge, and for the proposal of actions to transform West African societies. Gilles Yabi has worked as a senior policy analyst, and then as Director of the West Africa Office of the International Crisis Group, an international non-governmental organization working for the prevention and resolution of armed conflict.

Having obtained a PhD in development economics from the University of Clermont-Ferrand (France), Gilles Yabi has also worked as a journalist for Jeune Afrique in Paris before moving to Dakar (Senegal). For the past fifteen years, Gilles Yabi has regularly written for various international media on issues of peace, security and political and economic governance in West Africa.