Francesca Bomboko

Francesca Bomboko "has been working in the political arena since 1990, when she founded the Bureau d'Etudes, de Recherche et de Consulting International (BERCI) along with Olivier Kamitatu. The Kinshasa-based research center and polling organization has produced numerous public opinion polls of ordinary Congolese regarding their perspectives on important political issues. BERCI became an innovator in its field by publishing the results of such polls locally on a free, monthly basis, made possible by a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grant. BERCI has been an important channel for raising government awareness of public opinion on critical issues facing the country and holding the government accountable for its policies and actions.

"In 1999, BERCI was forced to close for approximately 14 months. In 2000, BERCI reopened, and in 2002 Ms. Bomboko participated in the Inter Congolese dialogue as an expert on President Masire's Facilitation Team. In collaboration with Professor Paul Bouvier, she published Le Dialogue inter congolais: une négociation à la lisière du Chaos about the experience.

"In 2003, Ms. Bomboko became the lead researcher for a good governance study financed by the World Bank that aimed at undertaking an institutional review of the ministry of health, education, justice, and public administration, and an evaluation of the general population's level of satisfaction with the public services of the ministries under review.

"In 2004-2005, she was a permanent consultant to the National Steering Committee of poverty reduction in the DRC, a special unit of the ministry of planning. That committee drafted the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper to be presented to the World Bank as part of their program for debt reduction in highly indebted countries.

"A graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, Ms. Bomboko also holds four masters degrees, from Columbia University, Solvay Business School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CERIS (ULB), and the Plate-forme PME of Namur, Belgium."

• Steering Committee, World Movement for Democracy
• Management Committee, Africa Democracy Forum