Gilbert Houngbo

Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo (born 4 February 1961) is a Togolese politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Togo from September 2008 to July 2012. He has also held various positions within the United Nations System, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Office and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In 2022 he was elected as the 11th Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

== Education and early career ==

Houngbo was born in rural Togo, the eleventh of eighteen children, and holds an advanced degree in business management from the University of Lomé in Togo. He moved to Canada in 1983 on a graduate scholarship and earned a degree in accounting and finance from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Houngbo stated in an interview in 2017 that this period deeply affected him and gave him a "sense of [his] place in the world". He obtained Canadian citizenship and worked at Price Waterhouse Canada, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

== Prime Minister of Togo ==

On 7 September 2008, President Faure Gnassingbé appointed Houngbo as Prime Minister of Togo; he...