Gilles Saphy is an election specialist with over 25 years of experience in electoral processes and political transitions, he serves as IFES's Country Director to Burkina Faso. His expertise includes electoral and constitutional reforms, electoral systems, election dispute resolution, international election obligations, capacity assessment, knowledge enhancement, and technical assistance.
He began his electoral assistance career supporting voter registration for the first post-conflict elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996–1997 and subsequently supported or led electoral projects in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia with the European Union. As an election advisor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) between 2004 and 2009, Gilles supported election-related activities in Albania, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova. In this capacity, he organised election observation and expert missions and assisted respective national authorities to improve electoral legislations and build democratic institutions. His achievements include supporting constitutional and electoral reforms in Albania and Ukraine (2005-2008) and advising transitional authorities in Tunisia on the electoral legislation (2011) and the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly on drafting a new constitution and electoral framework (2012). From 2013–2016, Gilles served as the director for the European Union’s capacity-building Election Observation Democratic Support (EODS) project. His African country experience includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, and Zambia.
Gilles holds master’s degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Strasbourg R. Schuman University, and Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Bordeaux Montesquieu University in France.