Jean-Paul Dossou is a medical doctor, and public health scientist from Benin. Jean-Paul Dossou is currently leading the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie (CERRHUD), that is an active partner of WHO and UNFPA on various Sexual and Reproductive Health Research and intervention issues. He is experienced in applying qualitative and mixed methods, system thinking principles, and complexity sensitive research and evaluation approaches. He is currently active in developing and implementing national and international interventions and research programs to support countries in their processes toward health-related SDGs in sub-Saharan Africa. He strongly believes that applying decoloniality lens, gender-transformative approaches and promoting effective context-sensitive knowledge production and use at all stages of policies and interventions developments, both in the global south and in the global north, will accelerate progresses towards SDGs everywhere.
Manuel Contreras-Urbina works at the World Bank as a Senior Social Development Specialist for the Latin America and Caribbean on gender-based violence (GBV). He has 25 years of experience in gender and GBV research and programs. Before joining the Bank, he served as the Director of Research of the Global Women’s Institute at the George Washington University, as the Programme Officer at UN Women in Mexico and Central America and as the coordinator of the Gender, Violence and Rights portfolio at the International Center for Research on Women. Manuel earned a PhD in Population and Gender Studies from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Masters in Demography from El Colegio de México and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Actuarial Science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.