Mr. Ould Abdallah is the President of the Centre for Strategy and Security in the Sahel Sahara (Centre4s). After pursuing higher education in Economics and Political Science in France (Grenoble and Paris), between 1969 and 1984, he successively held the positions of Minister of Commerce and Transport, Ambassador to the United States and to the Benelux countries and the European Union, and finally Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. United Nations Career: Between 1985 and 1996, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah served as a Director at the UN headquarters in New York, before being deployed to the field as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in Burundi from 1993 to 1995. From 1996 to 2002, he joined the World Bank to head the Global Coalition for Africa, chaired by Robert McNamara, in Washington DC. Returning to the United Nations, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for West Africa (from 2002 to 2010) before serving as SRSG in Somalia from 2007 to 2011. In 2015, the Secretary-General appointed him as a member of the Panel of Experts tasked with reviewing the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture. In 2019, he was selected to chair the Group established by the UN Secretary-General to review the United Nations ...

Since 1987, Sanda Kaufman has taught public policy and public management at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, where she directs the Master of Environmental Studies program. She holds degrees in architecture, urban and regional planning, and public policy analysis (from Carnegie Mellon University). She teaches negotiation, environmental dispute resolution, environmental policy, strategic planning, and quantitative reasoning. She also teaches decision-making and conflict management to public administrators, higher education administrators, elected officials, other managers of public agencies, and environmental and transportation professionals. Her research interests include: negotiations and intervention in public conflicts, decision analysis and risk communication; program evaluation; the spatial effects of public decisions; and pedagogy in negotiation and numeracy. She has designed and facilitated public meetings and trained students and professionals in the United States, France, and Portugal. Her articles have been published in the Negotiation Journal, the Conflict Resolution Quarterly, the journal Négociations, the International Journal for Conflict Management, Environmental Practice, the Journal of Planning Education & Research, the Journal of Architecture Planning & Research, Fractals, the International Journal of Economic Development, and Public Works Management and Policy.

Luc Chounet-Cambas is a seasoned practitioner in peace processes, ceasefire negotiations, and disarmament. He has extensive experience in project and program management, as well as advisory and consultancy roles. He is currently based in Bangkok. Luc previously managed Integrity’s program in Lebanon. Before that, he spent six years with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre), where he worked on dialogue and peace processes, providing operational support in conflict analysis, strategic planning, and project development. He supported negotiators and mediators with the technical aspects of ceasefires and disarmament efforts in contexts such as Libya, Mali, Myanmar, the Philippines, and in confidential negotiations. Drawing on this expertise, Luc now serves as an advisor to Promediation, offering advice on ceasefires and the disarmament and demobilization of former combatants. Previously, Luc worked on the design and implementation of large-scale disarmament and post-conflict stabilization programs in Afghanistan, Aceh, and Sudan. He has worked for the United Nations (UN), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), NGOs, and French bilateral cooperation, including several years in the field. Luc holds an Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) in African Studies from the University of Paris I Sorbonne, a degree in Political Science (from Sciences Po Lyon), and a diploma in Arab Studies. ...

Monique Chemillier-Gendreau is a jurist and professor emerita of public law and political science at the University of Paris Diderot (Paris VII). As a committed practitioner involved in numerous non-profit activities, she is the author of several books and around a hundred articles in journals or edited volumes, advocating for a critical approach to international law. She is notably the honorary president of the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights, which she helped found. She also possesses significant practical experience with international courts and has argued cases on behalf of several organizations, notably before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations in The Hague. She has been involved in the settlement of numerous international legal disputes between states and has participated in various proceedings before international tribunals and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), notably cases involving the Democratic Republic of Congo-Belgium, Senegal-Guinea Bissau, Algeria-Libya, Israel-Palestine, Laos-Vietnam, Laos-Cambodia, and Vietnam-China. She is a member of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal and has also provided legal guidance to several non-profit movements in France and internationally. Monique has contributed to the work of Promediation’s teams since 2015, notably providing advisory support on international law in the various mediation processes ...