The 2SCALE team has learnt with sadness that our former colleague François Dossouhoui passed away on May 2, 2020 after a short illness.
François has been instrumental in the development of 2SCALE and its approach. He joined the team in October 2012, as the Capacity Strengthening Coordinator for West Africa, under the technical coordination of iCRA, a consortium member of 2SCALE between 2012 and 2017. François co-designed and coordinated the 2SCALE strategy to strengthen agribusiness clusters, making them more competitive and improving their integration in agrifood value chains. He trained and mentored a whole network of 2SCALE trainers and agribusiness cluster coaches in 8 different countries in West Africa and organized the certification of the best performing ones. Still now in 2020, 2SCALE works closely with most of these trainers and coaches – and so do many other organizations that have recognized the unique skills they have developed to broker relationships among actors, reduce power asymmetries and build trust in agrifood value chains.
François and his 2SCALE work have been featured in many videos and stories available on www.2scale.org. He was the author of a chapter, entitled Local network building for inclusive agribusiness development, as part of 2SCALE’s book Business as Unusual: Insights from the 2SCALE Program. This chapter still serves us as a reference when reflecting on local networking and grassroots empowerment.
After leaving 2SCALE end of 2017, François finalized his PhD and continued leading iCRA’s efforts in West Africa. In 2019 and 2020, he still provided short-term support to 2SCALE field teams in Niger and Côte d’Ivoire.
Fluent in no less than 7 languages (!), François was a discrete colleague who easily built relationships with his colleagues. He was a competent facilitator and trainer, and a friend.
On behalf of the 2SCALE team,
Edabo, François!
Raphaël Vogelsperger
Deputy Program Director
2SCALE