On 6 September, the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo of Togo, announced the appointment of Fanfan Rwanyindo Kayirangwa of Rwanda as Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa of the ILO, effective 1 October. She will be based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The only tripartite U.N. agency, since 1919 the ILO brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 Member States , to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men
Since 2017, Fanfan Rwanyindo has been Rwanda’s Minister of Public Service and Labour.
Fanfan Rwanyindo holds a bachelor’s degree in law, obtained in 1997 from the National University of Rwanda, and a master’s degree in law, which she obtained in 2010 from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She joined the Rwandan judiciary in 2004, initially serving as a judge of the High Court of Rwanda, before becoming a judge of the country’s High Court of Commerce in 2008. She was appointed Vice-President of the High Court of Commerce of Rwanda in October 2013.
Before that, from 1998 to 2004, Fanfan Rwanyindo was legal adviser and head of credit at the Commercial Bank of Rwanda, now I&M Bank Rwanda Limited.
In 2017, she was appointed Minister of Public Service and Labour in Rwanda.
Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon to head the ILO office at the UN
As Deputy Director-General and Regional Director for Africa of the ILO, Fanfan Rwanyindo replaces the Nigerian, Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, who was appointed ILO Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the ILO Office to the UN in New York on 15 July.
Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon joined the ILO in 1995 and has held various positions in the field and in Geneva, including Deputy Regional Director for Africa, Head of the ILO’s Programming Unit for Africa and Deputy Director of the ILO Office in Pretoria.
Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon is the strategic leader of the joint ILO/ITU/AU programme on Boosting Decent Jobs and Improving Youth Skills in Africa’s Digital Economy. The aim of this programme is to enable more young Africans to access decent work in the digital economy. Through a holistic approach that takes into account labour market supply and demand as well as labour market intermediation, the programme provides comprehensive support that enables the initial nine target African countries to maximise decent work opportunities for young women and men.
Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon obtained a BA in Sociology in 1980 and an MSc in Industrial and Labour Relations from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1982). A fervent defender of women’s rights, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Sociological Association (Research Committee on Women in Society) from 1986 to 1990.
