Biography
Dr Leena Koni Hoffmann is an associate fellow of the Africa Programme, and the lead researcher for the Social Norms and Accountable Governance (SNAG) project at Chatham House.
She is also an honorary senior fellow of the EverGreening Global Alliance. Her research focuses on Nigeria’s political and social history; democracy, corruption and governance; cross-border cooperation and regional integration; and gender, food security and trade in West Africa.
From 2016 to 2020, Leena was a technical adviser on food security and agricultural policy to the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). She has worked as an investigator for Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Commission, and she was a Marie Curie research fellow at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) from 2013 to 2015.
She received her doctorate in African Studies from the University of Birmingham. Leena also holds an MA in international relations from the University of Lancaster, and a BSc in sociology from the University of Jos, Nigeria.
Past experience
| 2016 - 2020 | Technical adviser to the Executive Secretariat of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso |
| 2015 - present | Associate fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House |
| 2015-17 | Research consultant, Sahel and West África Club Secretariat, WAF Programme 2015-16, Paris |
| 2013-15 | Marie Curie research fellow, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Luxembourg |
| 2013 | ERANDA junior research fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House |
| 2005-07 | Postgraduate teaching assistant, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham |
| 2001-03 | Assistant superintendent of investigation, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Nigeria |
