The UGA African Studies Institute will present the 2016 Darl Snyder Lecture March 17 at 10 a.m. in Masters Hall of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
Zephirin Diabre, opposition leader in the Parliament and former presidential candidate of Burkina Faso and Visiting Harvard Scholar will speak on “Contesting Constitutional Change and Restoring Democracy in Burkina Faso.” This event is open free to the public.
Diabre’s lecture will focus on recent political developments in Burkina Faso, from the fight against constitutional change to the restoration of democracy, specifically the actions that led to the toppling of the Compaore regime to the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2015, in which he was a candidate.
Trained as an economist and financial manager, Diabre has served as a professor of management at the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In 1992, he was elected into the National Assembly and served in various ministerial positions in the national government including minister of industry, trade and mining from 1992-1994, minister of economy and finance from 1994-1996 and president of the Economic and Social Council from 1996-1997. In between two stints in the private sector, he was appointed deputy director general of the United Nations Development Program in 1999. Diabre is a founding member and current president of the Union for Progress and Change in Burkina Faso.