David Goeury

Researcher in the laboratory "Médiations. Sciences des liens, sciences des lieux" of Sorbonne University. In charge of the "Identifications et sociabilités" axis.

David Goeury has a doctoral degree in geography and is a teacher-researcher at the Espace Nature et Culture laboratory at the Paris-La Sorbonne. He also teaches a preparatory class for the Business prestigious universities at the Lycée Descartes in Rabat (Morocco). He is also an associate researcher at the Jacques Berque Centre in Rabat. He leads research on the margins and marginalities in low-income countries (India and Morocco). He is currently studying the transformation of oasis spaces through the action research program "Preservation of sacred and collective oasis sites". He is also co-sponsoring the ZERKA project (The blue spring and the urbanization of Mediterranean oases). He has also been involved in the study of political change in Morocco since 2011, first in the PROCELEC program (Electoral processes in North Africa, comparative research in electoral geography and sociology) and then in the TARICA program (Political and socio- institutional change in North Africa: competition of models and diversity of trajectories) directed by Alia Gana. Finally, he was the principal investigator of the ANRS 12 305 program (Income-generating activities and key populations infected, affected or threatened by HIV in Morocco) as part of a community-based research.

Johannes Frische

Postdoctoral researcher from Leipzig University

Dr. Johannes Frische is a postdoctoral researcher from Leipzig University with a background in Middle Eastern Studies, History and Religious Studies. During his graduate studies, he specialized in human geography of the MENA region. After graduating his master’s degree, Johannes joined the DFG graduate program “Critical Junctures of Globalization” as a research fellow with the Centre for Area Studies at Leipzig University. His doctoral thesis, defended in May 2021, revolves around urban inequality, informality, and precarity with a special focus on the role of youth in postrevolutionary Tunisia. In September 2021 he became a junior fellow member of the Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM).

Ibrahima Touré

Teacher-researcher at the Department of Sociology of the Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor (Senegal)

Ibrahima Touré is a teacher-researcher in the Department of Sociology at the Assane Seck University in Ziguinchor (Senegal). He defended his doctoral thesis in Sociology at the Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis. He is a member of the Laboratoire d'Étude et de Recherche en Sciences Économiques et Sociales (LARSES) of the Unité de Formation et de Recherches (UFR) Sciences économiques et sociales (SES). His expertise and research work focus on public policies, administrative reforms, development policies, mobility and social movements, particularly youth movements. Member of several professional networks in Senegal and abroad, Ibrahima Touré regularly participates in the activities of CODESRIA.and was Head of the Department of Sociology from 2019 to 2021 at the University Assane Seck of Ziguinchor.

Francis Akindès

Beninese-Ivorian Professor of Sociology at Alassane Ouattara University (Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire)

Francis Akindès is a Beninese-Ivorian Professor of Sociology at Alassane Ouattara University (Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire), born in 1961, and the author of several political science essays, including Côte d'Ivoire: la réinvention de soi dans la violence (Codesria, Dakar, 2011) and Les Racines de la crise militaro-politique en Côte d'Ivoire (Codesria, Dakar, 2006).

Deevia Bhana

DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality

Deevia Bhana is the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality. She has written extensively on the experience of gender and sexuality in the young life course bringing a broad interdisciplinary social science lens to understanding how gender and sexuality is experienced by children and young people and the implications thereof for addressing violence, sex education and sexual health interventions. Her latest book is entitled, Girls and the Negotiation of Porn in South Africa: Power, Play and Sexuality (2022, Routledge).

Marc Sommers

Youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist

Marc is an internationally recognized youth, peacebuilding, security, CVE and Africa specialist. He has provided strategic and technical advice, and expertise in training and conflict negotiation, including: • As a peacebuilder, designing and assessing programs for marginalized youth and coordinating discreet, high-level meetings on peace and stabilization.

• As a diplomat, serving as a back-channel negotiator and peacebuilding strategist. • As a field researcher and evaluator, where he regularly uncovers vital issues that previously had been overlooked or unknown. His trust-based methods are detailed in a recent book.

• As a violent extremism and CVE expert, revealing new insights in a seminal report on youth and CVE and leading a major research workshop for IGAD in Djibouti.

• As a security and risk management analyst, applying expertise on non-state military actors, informal economic sectors and youth exclusion to pressing challenges. Marc has served as a senior advisor and officer in the U.S. Department of State.

He is a former member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security and was a Fellow at The Wilson Center, U.S. Institute of Peace and The Bellagio Center. He taught for many years at The Fletcher School (Tufts University) and has consulted for 20+ NGOs, 5 UN agencies, 6 policy institutes, OSCE and the World Bank. Marc is the author of 9 books (on youth, war, development, education in emergencies, refugees, VE/CVE and coordination) and the recipient of 4 book awards. His next book is called "We the Young Fighters: Pop Culture, Terror & the War in Sierra Leone" (forthcoming, 2022).

Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski

Director of the North Africa Office at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Zuzana Brixiova Schwidrowski is Director of the North Africa Office at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Her current research interests are entrepreneurship, labour economics, family economics and development. She has published in journals such as Development Policy Review, Development Southern Africa, Economics Letters, Economic Modelling, Economic Systems, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Review of Development Economics, Small Business Economics, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, and World Development. She holds Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota and MA (Ing.) in Finance from the Prague University of Economics (VSE).

Ernest Yeboah ACHEAMPONG

Senior Lecturer/Research Associate in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

His research interests include African soccer, migration, soccer and youth education, sport for development and the phenomenon of self-giving. He has published several academic articles in reputable journals and has served as a reviewer for some scientific journals. His current book is 'African Footballers ii Europe: Migration, Community, and Give Back Behaviours' published by Routledge (2020).