Aude Darnal

Aude Darnal is the founder and executive director of the Global South Policy Hub.

She began her career in the peacebuilding and development NGO sector in West Africa before joining the international policy world as a think tank researcher in Washington, D.C., where she worked to inform decision-making and policies affecting communities in developing countries.

After several years focused on U.S.-Africa relations, she expanded her expertise to include the future of global governance, the transformation of the international financial architecture, and reform of development cooperation. Her work today centers on reimagining the current international system to promote a world order that effectively advances the prosperity and security of populations in the Global South and across the world.

Aude has worked across a wide range of issues, including conflict prevention, civil society strengthening, good governance, and women's and youth empowerment, particularly in West Africa. She also brings expertise in research, strategic communication, and program management.

Prior to founding the Hub, she led the Global South in the World Order Project — an initiative with the same mission — at the Stimson Center for three years. Before that, she served as an Associate Director at the Atlantic Council's New American Engagement Initiative and as a mobile safety advisor based in the Lake Chad Basin at the International NGO Safety Organisation, where she monitored and analyzed armed group activity. She also worked in Guinea with Search for Common Ground as a program development and donor relations specialist.

Aude was a columnist for World Politics Review from 2023 to 2025 and is regularly featured at conferences worldwide and in U.S. and international media — including Arté, CNBC Africa, Devex, Foreign Policy, France 24, NHK World, Reuters, RTS, and VOA. She testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights in 2021.

Aude holds an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in International Relations and International Law from the University of Quebec in Montreal. She is from Martinique in the Caribbean and speaks French, Creole, and English.