H.E. Euphrasie Kouassi Yao

H.E. Euphrasie Kouassi Yao

H.E. Euphrasie Kouassi Yao has served as the Minister for the Promotion of Women, Family and Child Protection, and holds a UNESCO chair on their committee on Water, Women and Decision-making. She serves as special advisor in charge of gender to the Honorable President of Côte d’Ivoire. She has been a major player in the development of gender policies in Côte d’Ivoire for more than thirty-five years. She led with great success, the institutionalization of the Gender approach in Côte d’Ivoire, wrote the Gender policy of Côte d’Ivoire in 2007, thus contributing to establishing a framework favorable to the promotion of gender and the empowerment of women. At the continental level, she contributed substantially to the drafting of the African Union Gender policy (2008) and then that of ECOWAS (2009).

H.E. Euphrasie Kouassi Yao is also the National Coordinator of the Compendium of Women’s Skills of Côte d’Ivoire (COCOFCI). Implemented by the UNESCO Chair “Water, Women and Decision-Making Power”, COCOFCI is a presidential program launched on October 4, 2011, at the initiative of His Excellency Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. As part of the dynamic of further promoting equal opportunities, the Compendium aims to strengthen the visibility of women, regardless of ethnicity, political party, religion, and to encourage their appointment to decision-making positions for greater participation in the management of public and private affairs. Under her leadership, the Compendium was elected, in 2018, by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the best African program for the promotion of female skills.

She has served as the Chair of the Technical Advisory Group (GTC), from June 2020 to June 2022, during the development of the SIGI Côte d’Ivoire Report conducted and piloted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), her mission consisted of supporting the completion of the study on gender discrimination in social norms in Côte d’Ivoire.

Excellency Yao has been a member of the steering committee and the governance committee of the Francophone Observatory for Inclusive Development through Gender (OFDIG). In July 2023, Minister Euphrasie Kouassi Yao was requested by the government of the Republic of Guinea to provide support for the establishment of the Compendium of Women’s Skills of Guinea (COCOFGUI). She

leads a mission to this effect punctuated by meetings at the top of the Guinean State with the head of government, the president of parliament, ministers, technical and financial partners, as well as with the entire network of agencies of the United Nations system.

At UNESCO, she has made a major contribution to promoting equal opportunities, peace and sustainable development. With the UNESCO Chair “Water, Women and Decision-Making Power”, Euphrasie Kouassi Yao worked on the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325/2000 on women, peace and security. She designed the CREA-PAIX tools on the empowerment of women and young people in resolving community conflicts, and set up the Bank of Love and Effective Solidarity (BASE) at the height of Covid-19. In 2018, she set up the Gender Engineering Training (FIG) for decision-makers, which brought more than 400 gender experts to the market. She opened within the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cocody, in 2022, the Master in Gender, Economics and Sustainable Water Management aimed at students and which has 35 auditors (18 women and 17 men), before launching in 2020, the Gender and Business Competitiveness Label (GECE Label).

She is also the author of 3 books that are widely used for learning and education. She was a Gold medalist at the 6th International Water Symposium in Cannes in 2004, 2013 National Excellence Award from the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for the promotion of female skills, because as mentioned in the 2013 Excellence Awards booklet on page 31, “she is at the root of anchoring the concept of Gender in the mentality of Ivorians” and contributes substantially to the promotion of female skills. 

The only woman to hold a UNESCO Chair in Côte d’Ivoire, Euphrasie Kouassi Yao is an international expert consultant in Gender and Development, monitoring and evaluation with agencies of the United Nations system such as UNDP, UNFPA and UN-Women in particular, or the African Development Bank (AfDB). Excellency Yao is an inspiring leader with impactful leadership who pursues the dream of a peaceful world. Through her actions, she impacts and inspires the community, and works to transform society.