Director & Faculty

Moncef M. Bouhafa – Founder & Director of Center for Development Communication

Mr. Moncef Bouhafa is a strategic communication expert with more than three decades of experience in the field of communication; he is currently director and founder of the Center for Development Communication. Combining strategic planning and training skills, Mr. Bouhafa has worked with international agencies, civil society and governments to advocate on a range of public issues related to governance and civil society, economic reform, violence against women and children’s rights among others.

He has special skills in training senior officials to develop communication outreach especially through the media. He has designed and implemented training courses in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Bouhafa has special expertise working with the Private Sector through social marketing and communication interventions.

Mr. Bouhafa is the lead facilitator for many of CDC’s learning events and is also a senior coach to executives including heads of UN agencies, heads of state & government, and resident coordinators of the UN System. He designs and implements learning programmes in the field of communication and development and has worked to design learning events with the United Nations System Staff College including pioneering the “Communication as a reform tool for the UN” series of workshops for senior UN staff.

Prior to the founding of CDC, he was a long-serving UN official in UNICEF and a senior specialist with The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Programmes (CCP) – one of the leading institutions in social marketing and communication for behavior change. While at UNICEF he helped the organization define the concept of Social Mobilization, which has been extensively used as a means of generating support and interest through stakeholders for UNICEF’s programmes, and serving as spokesperson for the organization in many situations including emergencies in West Africa. Mr. Bouhafa is fluent in French, English and Arabic.

Team Leaders

Jean-Frédéric Bernard –Team Leader Asia and The Pacific

Jean-Frédéric Bernard is a seasoned media trainer who has been working with CDC since 2003. Mr. Bernard has 25 years of journalistic experience in francophone Africa mainly dealing with strategic radio programming. His work with CDC has concentrated on training and advising senior UN officials and private sector managers on how to approach communication strategically.

Mr. Bernard successfully directed training workshops in several countries and contributed to the development of effective training curricula. He was the lead facilitator for Prime Minister and Ministers training in Guinea Conakry.

Passionate about media and sensitive to democratization and people’s empowerment, Mr. Bernard’s work focused on creating partnerships with local African radio stations, developing co-productions and conducting on-the-job trainings.

Mr. Bernard brings a unique background in radio, having directed Radio Caraibes International, the leading radio station in the French West-Indies, and working as a project manager for Swiss Radio International and Radio Netherlands International.

He has trained journalists and producers in Africa and the Balkans where he designed and implemented UNHCR-sponsored campaigns targeting refugees through radio and newspaper in Macedonia. He also gained experience with various media environments setting up and running partnerships between international broadcasters and local radio stations. He has relevant field experience in all of Western and Central Africa, the Caribbean, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Mr. Bernard is fluent in French, English, Dutch and Italian.

Supporting Team

Hamid Abdeljaber (Senior Coach) comes to CDC with over 25 years experience in the United Nations, more than half of which has been spent dealing with the press for news, communication and public information related to the Middle East and North Africa. Since 1997, he was Chief of Arabic Radio Unit and News Centre in the Department of Public Information (DPI) www.un.org/news/arabic.

He also served as Deputy Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq-Baghdad, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello. When the UN Headquarters was attacked, he was designated the liaison officer with Iraqi journalists and created the “Iraqi Media Centre” designed to train Iraqi journalists.

He was also the Spokesman and Assistant to the Director of UNIC-Islamabad. While there, he covered both Pakistan and Afghanistan including deployment in Kabul. He gave press briefing to the many journalists covering the war. He is currently completing his PhD focusing on conflict resolution, UN, media role and Middle East and North Africa-related issues such as Western Sahara, Iraq, and the question of Palestine. He is fluent in Arabic and English with a good knowledge of French and a working knowledge of Spanish

Erika Casajoana (Senior Coach) is an expert in political and media training services and strategic communications with over 15 years of experience and provides such services to organizations, corporations and campaigns to help them make an optimal use of mass media to reach targeted audiences.

Ms. Casajoana is also a published columnist and radio commentator in Spain for La Vanguardia, E-lecciones.net, and Catalunya Ràdio. As a consultant for the World Bank, she has given strategic public communications advice to the governments of Kosovo and Haiti, and trained their civil servants.

She worked with CDC on a very successful media training workshop for senior ILO officials in East and Central Europe that was held in Budapest in May 2010. Her work involved coaching participants on how to improve media interviews

Tong Cheng (Coach) is a veteran journalist who has worked for some of Asia’s most influential media including the BBC as well as the Financial Times while based in Bangkok. For three years he was also the Beijing Correspondent for Al Jazeera English TV from 2006 – 2009.

Currently he is an independent media professional based in Bangkok and in addition to his work as a trainer for CDC, he produces documentary films for a number of private sector clients including the National Geographic Channel as well as Discovery. He is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK and also studied in Taiwan.

Stella Kihara (Coach) has over 12 years experience in development communications and has worked in the fields of agriculture, conservation, health, and other social economic fields.  Some of the programs she has worked on span the African continent, including South Africa, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi, among others.
Some of the other key organizations that Stella has previously worked for include the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, World Bank, USAID supported programs in health and agriculture, Terre De Hommes, ACDI/VOCA and World Vision, among others.  She has led and also worked as part of national and international teams to develop organizational communication strategies for key World Bank funded programs in Africa which include Communications strategy to promote Public Private Partnership in Health Service delivery in Africa, Africa Stockpile Program and the Arid Lands Resource Management Program.   

As a trainer, Stella has build capacity of scientists, technical staff and other program staff in media and communication.  Some of the trainings have yielded TOT training modules. She has a strong professional and academic background in communications.

Mohammed El Koossy (Coach) With a desire to build a professional environment with a social conscience, Mohamed El Koossy became an entrepreneur and founded Active PR & Marketing Communications. Active PR is specialized in a wide range of public relations and marketing communications techniques and trends, with a special focus on public awareness campaigns, market entry strategies, corporate social responsibility and events management.

Mohamed is currently the host of one of Egypt’s leading Prime Time programs on television called “El Fayez Abby”. The program recently won the gold award for the best entertainment program in the Middle East. Season two is now aired twice weekly on both local and satellite TV channels.

In Jan 2006 Mohamed founded 4 Our Kidz, an Egyptian NGO aimed at the protection of children and advocating children’s rights. Mohamed currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of 4 Our Kidz.

Before establishing Active PR, Mohamed held increasingly responsible management positions in marketing and communications for multinationals Tetra-Pak and British Airways covering the Middle East and North Africa Region based out of Cairo.

Marc Gage (Coach) brings 25 years of experience as a television reporter, executive producer, news manager, media trainer and international communications specialist. He has worked extensively in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His work includes broadcast media development throughout the Balkans. The projects focused on developing successful commercial broadcast media in a market challenged by a very small advertising market. Marc has worked in a wide variety of multi-cultural environments.

Specifically, his projects have included developing broadcast media and capacity in emerging democracies. He has consulted for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of International Foreign Affairs Department (DIFA), United Kingdom.

Additionally Marc has extensive experience with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The Office of Transition Initiatives, Iraq Transition Initiatives (ITI) program in Iraq. He has consulted for the Washington, DC based Centre for Development Communication (CTC) advising United Nations senior management on media relations with an emphasis on proactively seeking media coverage of their success stories.

He worked in each region of Canada as a national television correspondent and executive producer with Canada’s two national television networks; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Canadian Television (CTV).

Marc also advises and consults for a variety of corporations, NGO’s, politicians and executives on media relations. He has developed crisis communications plans and provided strategic advice for dozens of clients in Canada and abroad.

Marc is fluent in English with a basic knowledge of French.
Marc began working with CDC in 2009 at the IEMTW in Moldova.

Walter Gill (Senior Coach) is a marketing professional with over 20 years of experience in consulting, content production for social media & alternative media, and advertising agency experience in strategic, brand enhancing marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns for a variety of non-profit and for-profit clients. He has also worked as a print journalist. He currently leads media training workshops for the Center for Development Communications (CDC) and helps participants use social media as an integral part of communications strategy.

Mr. Gill combines an excellent technical background in the field with several years of teaching that provides him with a unique skills set not only to know the material but to be able to transfer the skills to participants in a very effective way. Mr. Gill provides training at the CDC’s International Executive Media & TV Workshop.

This flagship event for practitioners covered the most important aspects of media relations including media training and understanding the role of social media in a strategic communications plan over three days. He also conducts a Social Media section at the Strategic Media Skills for Senior Managers where managers are exposed to the Who, What, When and How of Social Media in the context of a communications plan. This two day course covers the most important media skills for managers including interviews, reputation management and developing a media friendly office.

Mr. Gill has worked with UN leaders at the flagship course offered 4 times a year in Turin by the UN System Staff College. Mr. Gill is also the key content provider for CDC’s social media module that has been offered five times since 2009.

Larry Jagan (Senior Coach) brings a unique South East Asia perspective to CDC learning events from his extensive 30 year experience in journalistic reporting on Asian affairs. Over the past 3 years, he has helped deliver more than a dozen workshops for CDC where he has provided media and strategic communication training for senior managers in UN agencies and civil society.

Based in Bangkok, Mr. Jagan is currently working as a freelance journalist and media consultant including reporting for the BBC World Service Radio and TV and writing analytical pieces for the BBC News-Online Website. Over the last five years, he has delivered many training courses for journalists including for the BBC, Internews, Indochina Media Memorial Fund, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Bank and the UN. Mr. Jagan has also recently worked as editor and consultant with the Thai News Agency advising and editing TNA/MCOT English Online Site.

He contributes regularly to the Asia Times, Bangkok Post, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia and the South China Morning Post. He has reported extensively from Asia and presented the region’s specialist news and current affairs programs, South Asian Report and East Asia Today, including live programs from Hong Kong during the handover and Jakarta during the 1998 elections. Between 1995 and 2001, Larry was the regional news and current affairs editor for Asia and the Pacific region of the BBC and responsible for all news and current affairs coverage of the region.

Tania Mehanna (Coach) is a twenty year plus veteran journalist who is currently a senior correspondent with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) one of the Middle East’s premier satellite channels. She was also a correspondent for CNN’s World Report and received an award in 1994 for her coverage. She has been recognized for her coverage of some of the region’s main news events including the Iraq war; the conflict in South Lebanon; and the July war in Lebanon.

She has also been assigned to cover news stories in Jordan, Morocco, Syria, France, Italy, UK, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Ghana, Belarus, Brazil, Tunisia, Sudan, and Qatar.

She has been a speaker or trainer for many events organized by various United Nations agencies including : Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment Protection, UNDP, Focal Reporter for the UN week (2003-2004): coverage of UN agencies contribution to development and humanitarian activities in Lebanon; UNFPA Y-Peer Program, Muscat, UNDP Environmental crimes on the role of civil society in raising environmental awareness”.

She has also been a trainer on investigative journalism, and a speaker at major regional conferences such as the Arab Women’s Forum on Armed Conflicts; Young people and the Media Seminar, Swedish Institute; “Women, Media and the Mediterranean” , organized by ANSAMed; Women Rights Conference, Lebanese Council to Resist violence against women, Beirut.

Ms Mehanna has contributed to CDC workshops since 2002 helping participants understand what journalists are looking for and how to build bridges with the media. She most recently worked with CDC at the International Executive Media & TV Workshop in March 2009.

He joined the CDC team in 2003 and was the key designer for the Strategic Communication for Good Governance Course that CDC has piloted three times since 2003.

Zulima Palacio (Senior Coach) is a veteran journalist with more than thirty years of experience as a writer, correspondent, producer and video journalist.

Her background and extensive experience in Latin America helps participants gain an understanding of the media landscape in the region.

She has worked with CDC on learning events for the UNDP Human Development Report, UNFPA and the World Bank.

She has also worked as a press officer in Colombia for the Office of the President as well as the US Embassy.  She has trained Central American Journalists and TV professors from ten countries in Digital MiniDV Cameras, shooting, writing, narrating and digital editing. She is currently based in Washington DC.

Sunit Tandon (Senior Coach) is a  key member of CDC’s Asia team having worked on learning events for the World Bank and WFP in Bangkok, ILO in Manila and New Delhi, and UNICEF in Pakistan.  He brings more than two decades of extensive experience as a broadcast news anchor on television and in radio journalism.  He is one of the most recognized faces on news and current affairs programs in English on Indian television.

Presently, Mr. Tandon is Director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, the premier journalism and mass communication institute of the country. Prior to this he was the CEO of the Lok Sabha Television Channel, which is the 24-hour channel launched by the Lower House of the Parliament of India to provide comprehensive coverage of Parliament sessions.

Concurrently, he has worked as a news anchor on the News Channel of Doordarshan, the state-owned Indian television network.  Previously, Mr. Tandon has been General Manager of the National Film Development Cooperation, Limited and Deputy Director of the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.  He has also, in the past, served as guest faculty at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, teaching aspects of news anchoring, voice and presentation skills, as well as lectures on public service broadcasting in India. He is fluent in English and Hindi.

Farida Ayari is a thirty year plus veteran journalist who had just accomplished an assignment with UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office as chief of Communication.  Before that she spent more than twenty years with Radio France International, as Senior Correspondent, Bureau chief in South Africa and editor of the Middle East desk. She was also a correspondent for “L’Express”, a French weekly magazine and contributed regularly with other French newspapers such as “Politique Internationale”, “Libération” and “Actuel”.  She has been recognized for her coverage of some of the main news events including the transition to democracy in South Africa, Iraq war, the conflict in South Lebanon and the July 2006 war in Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has also been assigned to cover news stories in North Africa including the Algerian civil war in the 1990’s, Jordan,  Syria, Iran and  Southern Africa. 

Farida Ayari holds a Masters Degree from l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris in Political Science and International Relations.  She is also graduated  from l’Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris and l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Internationales.  She has also participated in various training seminars organized by Radio France Internationale and the Reuters Foundation.  In 2008, she created and managed a Radio Journalism Training Center in N’djamena, Chad for the American NGO Internews Network with a USAID funding.  Farida Ayari is fluent in: French, English and Arabic.

Kirk Troy – Senior Coach

Kirk Troy has been a team leader and senior coach with CDC since 2003.  Mr. Troy is a strategic communication expert, who has more than a decade of working experience as a journalist in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. For the last four years, Mr. Troy has coached senior officials from UN, government and civil society through learning events conducted by CDC. He brings unique expertise in helping participants understand what journalists are looking for, and has designed learning modules around managing negative news. Given his work experience in developing countries he is able to guide participants on how to adjust their approaches for different media landscapes.

Based out of Hong Kong, he spent many years working as a journalist. He specifically covered the bombing of the UN headquarters in Iraq, the return of Iraqi children to school and other humanitarian issues for Newsday, Far Eastern Economic Review and Voice of America. During the time he was based in Abidjan, Mr. Troy covered everything from civil wars to cultural issues in an area that included 26 countries from Mauritania to Angola. He reported extensively on the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and the crises resulting from the conflicts. These included famine, child soldiers, education and HIV/AIDS.  He has also lived in Afghanistan where he covered the fall of the Taliban, the return of Afghani women to work and girls’ education, the flood of hundreds of thousands of refugees returning and the general political situation. Covering these stories meant traveling extensively in the country. His area of expertise includes crisis reporting and management and can speak Fluent English, French and Mandarin Chinese.

Edward Harris (Coach) is a Brussels-based consultant who focuses on international media development and communications training and strategy for the development and humanitarian communities. Between 1997 and 2009, Harris worked as a journalist for The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal. He held postings in New York, Brussels, Stockholm, Singapore, Dakar, Senegal and Lagos, Nigeria.  During nearly a decade based in Africa, Harris covered stories from around the continent, including elections in Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria and RD Congo. He also reported extensively from the Middle East and Central Asia during the 2000s, covering the strife in those regions. Now, Harris offers expertise in media management and training for the development and humanitarian sectors: He has implemented a UK-government-funded capacity building program for journalists at Nigeria’s largest daily newspaper and helped South-South cooperation groups sell their successes to the international media, including CNN.  He is also engaged in helping run a European Commission web platform for development professionals as well as research and programming activities for a UK government initiative seeking to help international NGOs better communicate with beneficiary communities in disaster zones.   Harris holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Connecticut College in New London, CT, USA. He speaks English and French. Mr. Harris joined the CDC team in 2011.

Rosalind Yarde (Trainer and Coach) joined the team in 2012 and is an international media and communication consultant based in Geneva, Switzerland, who has more than 30 years’ experience as a journalist in print, television and radio. She worked for nearly ten years as a newspaper journalist in London, including four years at the Times Higher Education Supplement. In 1990, she joined BBC World Service radio as a scriptwriter, broadcaster and senior producer, as well as assistant producer on World Service Television.

In 1993, she was awarded the Alexander Onassis Bursary, which funded travel to Central and South America for a research study on women’s empowerment. In 2000, she was awarded the Guardian Media Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford University, where she spent a year researching and writing on race and the media.

She moved into the development field in 2006, when she became Project Director of the BBC World Service Trust, Darfur Lifeline Project,, in Sudan, which involved the production of daily radio broadcasts to Internally Displaced People in Darfur on issues such as health, protection, water and sanitation, gender and youth.

She has an undergraduate degree in Spanish and European Studies (Warwick University, UK), a Master’s Degree in Communication for Development (Malmo University, Sweden), and is a contributing author for a book on youth, media, communication and development in Africa to be published in 2012.  Rosalind speaks French, Spanish and passable Swahili.