Ginette KARIREKINYANA

Ginette Karirekinyana is the founder of the International Cooperation Ethics Consultative Agency, and has been its chairperson and director since 2007.

As a Burundi national, she gained a license and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon. She proceeded to Bayreuth where she obtained an advanced studies’ diploma in philosophy, more specifically in philosophical anthropology. In 2005 she registered for a PhD at Laval University (Quebec, Canada), concentrating on the issue of humanism and intersubjectivity towards responsibility ethics. Focusing on applied ethics, she has been working in Laval University research groups on bioethics, medical ethics, environmental ethics, and on the issue of social corporate responsibilities of private companies doing business with countries of the South and bio-engineering. She has been a teaching assistant in the Business Ethics course of Laval University.

As ACECI Director, she has initiated the international campaign aiming to translate the Millennium Development Goals into a model law on poverty reduction. This campaign is supported by an NGO collective from the North and the South. She also coordinates the international cooperation project to produce organic mosquito repellent for the fight against malaria in Africa, embedded in a vision of sustainable development.

Strategic advisor

Jean Morand is a lawyer specialised in business law and fiscal matters. His professional activities have quickly taken up an international dimension. He has played a major role in the conception and implementation of big commercial projects with international companies.

In the last 15 years, a large part of his professional expertise has been gained from mandates given by NGOs active in international development. This has brought him to several countries: Haïti, Mexico, Russia, Armenia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungaria. He is also a board member of several NGOs working in the fields of international development and integration of migrants.

Special advisor

Since the 1st of August 2011, a new collaborator, Pierre-Léon Lafrance, has joined ACECI. Until now, Pierre-Léon was chief editor at Radio Canada International, a position he has held for the last 6 years. Before that, he has been Radio-Canada's Washington correspondant, a post that has allowed him to travel throughout the world, covering major international news developments.

After his return from Washington and his posting at Radio Canada International, he has been chief of Radio Canada's corporate international relations, which has allowed him to familiarise with certain major Africa-related topics.

At present, Pierre-Léon has retired and he will help us out with communication, the agency's visibility, notably in Montreal, as well as the general management of our activities.

Romuald SOMDA

Assistant to the director

Romuald is administrative assistant to the director. Of Burkinabe descent, he obtained a bachelors’ degree in Languages and Literature in Bamako, Mali. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in political sciences, with a major in international relations, obtained at the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

Fascinated by international cooperation, he has been an intern in important international institutions. During his internship in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) he has been focusing on African integration, notably the reduction of customs’ barriers to promote the West African economic space. He was also an intern in the Delegation of the European Union in Burkina Faso, where he was involved in the monitoring of the Regional Indicative Program 2010 for the European Development Fund. Finally, he also did an internship with the Francophonie in Burkina Faso, where he has been working on the francophone presence throughout West-Africa.