Arlington, VA — Counterpart International today announced the appointment of Olivier Alais to the Global Programs team as Chief of Party for Internet Freedom and Internet Governance. In this role, Olivier will provide technical direction and overall project leadership, while coordinating with donors, civil society organizations, local government officials, and private sector partners to manage activities, facilitate monitoring and reporting of objectives and achievements, and ensure quality service provision and governance program effectiveness.
Olivier Alais is a social technologist, researcher, and entrepreneur. He specializes in adapting technology to civil society needs. He spent four years in West Africa, giving computer science courses, setting up rural computer centers, building community-based radio stations, and managing an innovation lab.
More recently, he authored the report, Applying a Public-Private Partnership Approach to Digital ID in Somalia; designed technical specifications for the creation of a federal social security digital platform that allows data exchanges and analysis in Mexico; designed tech policies in Liberia and Comoros; developed a micro insurance health program for Burmese refugees in Thailand; drafted the open source policy in Mauritius; and authored the open data initiative in Liberia under funding from the World Bank, the European Commission, the Global Fund, and USAID.
As a researcher, Olivier worked on the social impacts of Open Data and Open Source for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and for the Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade de Rio de Janeiro. As an entrepreneur, Olivier founded Soukeina, a digital strategy and cyber security firm advising public institutions, startups, NGOs, and universities.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Paris and a joint engineering degree in information systems from the University of Technology of Troyes, Compiègne and McGill University.
About Counterpart International
Counterpart International helps people build better lives and more durable futures, community by community. For 50 years, Counterpart has been an innovator, changing the way people look at, and solve, global development challenges.
