Dr Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou
Chair, Expert Working Group, Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC) and Director, Politics and Governance (PoGo), ODI
Dr Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou is a British born Nigerian and an independent consultant on conflict, peace, security and responsible business in Africa. Dr. Nwajiaku-Dahou has over twenty years experience working as a policy advisor of international development to governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs and the private sector. She has spent the last five years at the OECD, where she led the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and State building as Head of the Secretariat. Dr. Nwajiaku-Dahou was a Policy Advisor on Extractive Industries and Conflict at Oxfam, where she worked directly with environmental rights organisations to address the environmental, social and political challenges associated with oil and gas production in Nigeria.
Dr. Nwajiaku-Dahou holds a DPhil in Politics from Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Her thesis entitled ‘Oil and Transformation of Ethnic Identity in Nigeria: The Case of the Ijaw of the Niger Delta’ was based on extensive field researcher conducted in Bayelsa and Rivers States and became the subject of numerous publications, commissioned reports and awards, including the 2012 Ruth First Prize for Best African Academic Article. Dr. Nwajiaku-Dahou mainly resides in France and is bilingual in French, and is a moderate speaker of Nigerian pidgin, Igbo, Wolof and Spanish.
