Dominique Hounkonnou

Dominique Hounkonnou was born in the village of Dangbo in Bénin (then called Dahomey). He went to university in Belgium where he studied agronomy at the prestigious Gembloux College. Back in Bénin, he worked for the state organisation in charge of rural development (CARDER) and in 1977 he became its regional head for the whole of the agriculturally-rich southern region. In 1984 he joined the C.T.A, an international organisation based in the Netherlands, part of the European Union, which deals with agricultural and rural development in developing countries. He subsequently worked as an international civil servant for 12 years, travelling extensively all over the world for the CTA and became its Head of Operations and Regional Activities. In 1996, he decided to leave his job to go back to full-time study in Wageningen University in the Netherlands and do some research on “local development dynamics” in Africa.

He got a PhD in December 2001 and returned to Bénin at the beginning of 2002. He now divides his time between consultations as a respected international expert on African community development and his voluntary work with northern NGOs like Friends of Bonou.