In this time of global economic crisis, the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso has sent a new ambassador to the United States who has no formal diplomatic experience, but has specialized in development economics since the mid-1980s. Seydou Bouda presented his credentials to President Barack Obama on September 9, 2011.

 

Born December 31, 1958, in Poa, Boulkiemdé Province, Burkina Faso, which was then a French colony known as Upper Volta, Bouda completed his secondary education at the Lycée Ouezzin Coulibaly in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, in 1978. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Lomé in Lomé, Togo; an MA in Economics (Development Planning) from the University of Ouagadougou in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 1983; and the following year, a postgraduate degree in Development Economics at the University Montpellier I, in Montpellier, France. He also holds a license and a Master’s of Sociology from Ouagadougou.

 

Back in Burkina Faso in January 1985, Bouda was drafted into the military, and served until February 1986, when he was released from duty and joined the Ministry of Planning and Development, where for three years he worked on Burkina Faso’s first Five Year Development Plan. In February 1989, he went to work directly for the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, as an engineering and planning consultant, responsible for the National Fund for Employment Promotion and public works projects.

 

In July 1991, Bouda became the first General Secretary of the newly-formed Department of Employment, Labor and Social Security. In November 1994, he was appointed Technical Coordinator of a national program to support the management of the economy. After a short course at the École nationale d’administration in Strasbourg, France, in 1999-2000, Bouda was appointed Secretary General of the Government and the Council of Ministers in November 2000. In June 2002, he was promoted to Minister of Economy and Development.

 

In May 2007, Bouda was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the ruling Congress Party for Democracy and Progress (CDP), representing his home province of Boulkiemdé. From June to September 2007, he was Minister of Public Service and State Reform, before settling in as Minister of Health from September 2007 to April 2011.

 

Bouda is married and has four sons.

-Matt Bewig

 

Biography(in French)

à l’ouverture des Assemblées annuelles 2006 du Groupe de la Banque africaine de développement (in French)