The Center for Development Communication - Corporate Information -Workshop 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.

Mr. Bouhafa also developed ground-breaking programmes for the UN in the field of rapid public information response in peace keeping, humanitarian programmes, and reputation management for the UN in the Middle East and in Africa. He also has extensive experience in designing and developing learning packages. While a Middle East and Africa specialist, Mr. Bouhafa has worked in more than 30 countries worldwide in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

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.

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 London, he also works as a freelance 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.

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.

Osei Kofi brings his vast experience in Africa and his communication campaigns expertise as a Senior Coach for CDC on learning events for diplomats, government officials, development practitioners and senior managers. He is a media practitioner with extensive experience in international affairs, in particular, the positioning of Untied Nations agencies in outreach programs. For years he was a member of UNICEF’s international public affairs team in Sub-Saharan Africa that designed and implemented a series of global initiatives, including the Child Survival and Development Revolution, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Roll Back Malaria, The Girl Child Education, Facts for Life, and Control of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Prior to working with the UN, Mr. Kofi was a senior editor & foreign correspondent for a number of media houses including the Reuters News Agency, gaining wide expertise in print, wire & online journalism. He has expertise in press liaison, trouble-shooting and information management in situations of armed conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies. Mr. Kofi has worked in many of Africa’s hot spots, including Angola, Burundi, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia and southern Sudan. He has advised a number of African governments in their international public information initiatives and coordinated preparations for donors or fund raising conferences. He is a trainer in social marketing, social mobilization and public information drives to support nationwide and community level development strategies, including fund-raising and donor feedback strategies. Mr. Kofi is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and some of Ghana’s dozen-plus languages.

Richard Cooper – Senior Coach

Richard Cooper joined CDC in 2006 bringing with him twenty-five years of expertise as an international trainer and consultant. His work for CDC involves training senior UN Officials on how to conduct effective interviews and manage media relations. His broad background involves providing coaching services for over forty global companies, as well as leading presentations in more than twenty countries on a variety of subjects. He has extensive experience in executive training for major organizations including the International Labor Organization (ILO), Citigroup, and Disney among others. Mr. Cooper has also lectured all over the world on topics such as leadership, mediation, and learning languages. He has previously spoken for the Grande Ecole (Institute of Water Management and Land Resources) about communication skills in English, and for the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence about powerline communications for the development and growth of Ghana.

Mr. Cooper has also authored a variety of publications on the subjects of training, economy and culture. Some of his recent articles are: “What is this thing called Sustainable Development? Lessons from a complicated world” (New Standpoints, Spring 2008), and “Communication: Your Secret Tool” (Me, DNA Sunday supplement, October 2006). An American citizen fluent in English and in French, Mr. Cooper is currently based in Bombay and is studying Hindi.

Juliette Meeus - Coach, Center for Development Communication

Juliette Meeus has more than 25 years experience as a television journalist, with extensive experience both in the United States and Europe. She has worked in front of and behind the camera, covering political elections and such historical events as Pope John-Paul’s visit to Cuba.

She has trained newspeople for on-camera work, and executives on how to deal with and relax with the news camera and journalists questions, and has taught journalism at the university level. Ms. Meeus is fluent in French and English and has a working knowledge of Spanish and Russian.

Hamid Abdeljaber 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.

Isabelle Abric brings 20 years of professional experience in public information and communication training. She is a content expert in the areas of peacekeeping and development, with an emphasis on the defense and promotion of human rights and support to the development of local and national media and distribution networks. Ms. Abric has worked with CDC on learning events in Moldova for training of journalists in human rights reporting, in Tanzania for training of senior government officials on security, health and education and UNDP/ BCPR senior staff on reputation management and media crisis. Ms. Abric is fluent in French and English with a working knowledge of Spanish, German and Creole.

Jane Hulbert brings 25 years of experience in crisis communication, media training and media relations to the CDC team. For more than 20 years she has provided essential skills through trainings to individuals and groups, putting clients through hostile and general interviews and teaching proven interview techniques. Ms. Hulbert joined CDC in 2005, working on events for the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) as well as for the World Bank sponsored CGIAR during which she coached the senior managers to help them understand how to deal with reputation management issues. Ms. Hulbert brings a private sector emphasis to the team.

Saima Iqbal is a programme/ health communication specialist who worked for UNICEF prior to joining the Center for Development Communication in 2004. While at UNICEF she prepared the Communication Policy paper which was presented to the Executive Board in June 1998, organized the 7th UN Roundtable on Communication for Development in Brazil, carried out research and commissioned evaluations of the Division of Communication’s programmes.

Since joining the CDC, she has worked on adapting training materials into a learning format for distance learning manuals for senior managers in ILO, the CGIAR and the Rapid Public Information Response in UN Peacekeeping Operations.

She served as project manager for the development of several communication strategies including one for public-private partnerships for health service delivery in Africa for the World Bank, completing an audience analysis for Phase 1 countries of the Africa Stockpiles Programme (www.africastockpiles.org) and finalizing the communication strategy for the OneUN/ Joint Office in Cape Verde.

Larry Jagan 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.

Alain Modoux brings over thirty years of experience as a strategic communication expert in democratic communication (including media and good governance), media as a key actor in the information society (challenges and threats), development of communication and communication for development, including ICT contribution. 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 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 is a key member of CDC’s Asia team having worked on learning events for the World Bank in Bangkok, ILO in 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 program in English on Indian television.