Abdou Tenkouano
CORAF
Dr. Tenkouano is Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central Africa Council for
Agricultural Research and Development, an International not For Profit Association of
National Agricultural Research and Development institutions from 23 countries, with
headquarters based in Dakar, Senegal. He also is a guest lecturer at University of
Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and adjunct professor at University of Ghana Legon
(Ghana) and KU Leuven (Belgium).
His academic background is in crop sciences, with a PhD in Genetics (1993) and a MSc
in Plant Breeding (1990) from Texas A&M University (College Station, USA) as well as
a degree of “Ingénieur Agronome” (1985) from the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina
Faso), complemented by executive education in leadership and management provided
by the Indian Institute of Management and Harvard Business School.
A native of Burkina Faso, he has, prior to his current position, worked across sub-
Saharan Africa with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT, 1994–1996, Mali), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA,
1996–2008, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ghana) and The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC,
2008–2016, Tanzania and Mali), totaling around 30 years of post-doctoral experience
progressing from research scientist to regional leadership and advocacy roles as
Regional Director, Member of International Boards or Advisory Committees at several
organizations.
He has focused his career on bridging science and practice through effective
partnerships and innovation in context, working with senior officials – at ministerial
level – of national governments as well as regional economic communities to influence
the development of enabling policies that support innovation for sustainable uptake of
technologies for inclusive agricultural transformation.
