Dr. Emelyne Calimoutou is a Senior Legal and Gender Specialist with over 10 years of professional experience practicing law in international organizations (World Bank, UN) and European top private law firms. She has a proven track record of successful high-level policy dialogue leading to major reforms to advance sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality for women and girls and supported by World Bank-financed projects in Africa (Benin, Cameroun, Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania).

She is currently leading the legal reform workstream at the GFF Secretariat hosted at the World Bank and provides technical and strategic expertise to identify country-led reform opportunities, coordinate broad stakeholder consultations and lead high-level policy dialogue to support their adoption and implementation. Her research focuses on laws, regulations and policies aiming at empowering women and adolescent girls, including improving access to inclusive education, quality maternal child health services, family planning, and preventing gender-based violence, including harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

Dr. Emelyne Calimoutou is a French lawyer and received her Ph.D. in law from Montpellier University in France, her LL.M in International Legal Studies from the Washington College of Law, American University, and her M.B.A from H.E.C Paris. She is currently enrolled in the Master Public Health with a focus on Maternal and Child Health at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health.