Laurent Somé

Laurent Magloire Somé is Head of Policy and Partnership for the Africa Region at WWF-International. He has thirty-five years of progressively responsible experience and leadership in high level policy dialogues and advocacies with a wide range of governmental and non-governmental actors, diplomacy, strategic partnership development and management, coalition building, innovative biological research, strategic environmental planning, and resource mobilisation.

In addition, he is an executive with extensive experience in the development, management, monitoring, and reporting of large and complex natural resources conservation and sustainable management initiatives and programmes. His has technical proficiency in international development, geopolitics, Africa-China cooperation, Africa-European Union cooperation, with demonstrated success in building and management of multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams. Furthermore, he possesses excellent interpersonal, organizational and management skills, including office administration, budget development and management, multi-party negotiation and conflict resolution, information exchange, database management, and strategic communication. As well as experience in training and facilitation, assisting partners in developing individual and institutional capacity to undertake research, conservation, and development activities, and to formalize institutional and inter-institutional relationships.