African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) has welcomed a new member into the Steering Committee, Dr. Bassirou Bonfoh. Dr Bonfoh is the Director of Afrique One at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), a leading African research capacity building program in One Health, funded under the African Institutions Initiative and DELTAS Africa.

With a keen interest in One Health and its nexus with agrifood systems, Dr. Bonfoh has vast experience in livestock and food systems, focusing on epidemiology and public health. An avid champion of research, partnerships, capacity building, and innovative collaborations, he has strategically contributed to establishing several One Health platforms and feasibility studies for new projects on pandemic prevention and public health.

I am excited to bring our One Health experience and expertise into the AWARD strategy as gender principles have always been at the heart of our Pan African program on the Climate-Agriculture-Nutrition-Health nexus! Said Dr. Bonfoh.

Dr. Bonfoh’s leadership experience spans Africa, Europe, Asia and has led several powerful development initiatives, including Afrique One, the world’s longest-running research consortium in the field of One Health research, capacity building, and operationalization, and the African Research Consortium on Health (ARCH), which comprises 14 consortia under the Africa Science Foundation initiatives.

Dr. Bonfoh holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree and a PhD in epidemiology. He is also a guest lecturer on the One Health approach at several universities, including the University of Liège (Belgium), the University of Oxford, the University of Kara and Lomé (Togo), the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Benin, and the École Inter-États des Sciences et Médecine Vétérinaires, Senegal, where he chairs the scientific advisory board.