The  UNFPA Liaison Office to the AU and the UNECA is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Désiré Yetsowou Assogbavi as the new Chief of the UNFPA Liaison Office in Addis Ababa. Désiré, a national of Togo, holds a Master’s Degree in Public Law and a Vocational Diploma on Management.

Désiré joins UNFPA from Oxfam International and Plan International respectively, where he  headed the Liaison Offices of those organizations to the African Union for the past eight years. From 1996 to 2001 he worked for the Ministry of Communication of Togo as Head of Civic Education, then was elected by the Parliament as a Commissioner in the National Human Rights Commission. He also worked with the World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policies in New York, coordinating their International Justice Campaign in Africa. In addition, Désiré worked for four years as a researcher with the Nobel Prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), contributing to the publication of four global annual reports of the Brussels-based Landmine Monitor.

Désiré has published and presented more than 70 articles and papers on various human rights related issues and the African Union. He also led the drafting team for the Oxfam publication of the first reference manual, the "African Union Compendium". He has been an appointed Member of the Netherlands Government’s Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Development Policies since 2014.

You can Désiré's read the full bio here.