User talk:Ibrahima.dia

Early life and education

Amb Ibrahima Dia is a Mauritanian diplomat who began his career in 1992 in a Law firm in France. He holds DEA (Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies, Master) in International Relations from University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, DES (Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures, Master), Centre d'Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques (CEDS), Paris and Diplôme d'Administrateur civil from Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), Tunis, Tunisia. He speaks Fulani (mother tongue), French, English and Arabic.

Amb Dia devoted over twenty years of his career in diplomacy, international institutions, including United Nations system and African Development Bank. He was appointed in September 2017 as Director-Special Adviser in United Nations Peacekeeping Department. From 2015-2016, he worked as Senior Adviser on Africa with private firms in United Arab Emirates and in Tunisia.

Diplomatic career

From 2007 to 2009, he served as Ambassador of Mauritania to the United States, Australia and Mexico resident in Washington. In this capacity, he successfully engaged US Congress members to review/increase US military and civilian assistance to Mauritania. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PilkPa_FImA. As result, U.S Administration allocated significant bilateral financial assistance to Mauritania. This includes Millennium Challenge Corporation https://www.mcc.gov/news-and-events/release/release-121207-selection, Education, Agriculture and Health programmes. As Permanent Representative of Mauritania to the World Bank and IMF, he conducted successful negotiations with senior management in these institutions that resulted in an increase of their respective allocations to Mauritania. He participated in the planning and organization of donors’ roundtable for Mauritania in December 2007 in Paris that raised 2 Billion US Dollars. As member of the African Group of Ambassadors in Washington DC, he co-Chaired the Group Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development. He resigned from his ambassadorial term in protest of a military coup. https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/b/92732.htm.

In 2010, he served as Special Adviser to United Nations World Food Programme Executive Director.

In 2011, he was jointly appointed by the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Executive Secretary and Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) as Director of AU-UNECA-AfDB Joint Secretariat in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), which he established and headed until 2014. In this regard, he played a leading role in building consensus among these three institutions, strengthening institutional and communication linkages and collaboration between these institutions and African Regional Economic Communities as well as with bilateral and multilateral partners for implementation of Africa’s development agenda through continental programmes such as Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), Free Continental Trade Agenda, Science, Technology and Innovation; Higher Education, Governance and post-Conflict reconstruction. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyf0jm_decryptage-dr-ibrahima-dia-mauritanie_news. He also led resource mobilization campaigns for these progarmmes. As result, he raised 20 Million Euro from European Union and African Caraiban Pacific in February 2013 for a continental programme known as “Climate for Development in Africa” http://www.afdb.org/fr/news-and-events/article/acp-grants-eur20-million-to-afdb-au-and-eca-in-the-fight-against-climate-change-11501/. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Pan African University composed of 5 specialized institutes housed in national Universities in Algiers, Ibadan, Nairobi, Yaounde and Pretoria. In this role, he persuaded AfDB management to allocate 45 Millions US Dollars to finance the launching of these institutes.

Prior to that, Amb Dia worked with United Nations Department Peacekeeping Department from February 2001-2006, successively as Human Rights Expert, Political Adviser and Disarmament Expert (2001-2003) in United Nations Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC). In 2003, he was assigned as Head of MONUC Regional Liaison Office in Bujumbura (Burundi). He then moved to Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) in March 2004 to participate as Political Adviser in the establishment of the United Nations Mission mandated to implement the peace process in the country. In these peacekeeping Missions, he participated in numerous mediations and negotiations aimed at restoring peace and security in the above-mentioned countries.

In 1999, he was Research Coordinator in the Office of the Prosecutor of United Nations Tribunal for Rwanda in Kigali.

From 1997-1999, Amb Dia worked as Legal Expert in International Committee of Red Cross Permanent Mission to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa. In this position, he actively participated in ICRC campaign for the creation of International Criminal Court (ICC).