Kakuna Kerina

Kakuna Kerina "is the Senior Advisor for Africa and the Senior Program Director at the International League for Human Rights. Previously, as Executive Director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), she established the regional office of the Soros Foundation in Dakar, Senegal and launched its operations in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) nations, plus Chad and Mauritania . The Foundation disbursed US$10 million in grants annually to civil society institutions, non-governmental organizations and government agencies working nationally and regionally in the areas of human rights, democracy and governance, media, information communication technologies (ICTs), legal reform and transitional justice, and HIV/AIDS. Prior to OSIWA, Ms. Kerina, as Director of the Africa Program established the League's Africa initiatives and developed and implemented projects promoting the defense of human rights and strengthening West African civil society institutions. She has also worked as Africa Program Director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and directed projects for the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) HIV and Development division."