Kouamé Venceslas KOUAKOU specializes in natural resource conservation, rural & community development, as well as project monitoring & evaluation.
He also holds several certificates in development project management, monitoring and evaluation, planning and management of international organizations.
Prior to joining IDEV in November 2019, he was a research assistant at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques in Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS) for 4 years. In this research centre of excellence, he was a member of research groups such as Governance, Society and Economic Development (GSDE) & Natural Resources Conservation and Development (CVRN). Based on this, he participated in several research initiatives in many areas of Côte d'Ivoire, as well as in research and development project evaluation from project conception to completion.
As a consultant, he has also been involved in the evaluation of several development projects:
- The creation of three ecological corridors between the Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire and the Grébo National Park in Liberia, on behalf of AHT GROUP AG (an international German research company); and
- Assessment of the High Conservation Values (HCV) of the Grand Bereby Rubber Company's (GBSC) plantations and forest estates for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification on behalf of HCV AFRICA (South African international research firm);
Kouamé is also a member of the Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Sciences de l'Environnement (GRISE) of the Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé de Daloa (Côte d'Ivoire) where he worked for 3 years as an instructor in the Sociology & Anthropology Department where he taught anthropology research methodology. He holds a Ph.D in Anthropology from the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d'Ivoire).