H.E Aïcha Bah Diallo is the former Minister of Education in Guinea and former Assistant Director General for Education (UNESCO). She is a well-known figure in the championing of women’s and girls’ education.

She has been a member of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) since its inception, the Association for Strengthening Higher Education for Women in Africa (ASHEWA), the Réseau des Femmes pour l’Egalité Femmes-Hommes and a member of the High-Level  Steering Group of Education Outcomes Fund (EOF).

She is the chair of the Network for Education for All in Africa and Aide et Action International as well as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Prize Committee for Good Governance and Leadership in Africa as well as the UNESCO Prize Committee for Women’s and girls’ education.

As minister from 1989 to 1996, Mme. Bah Diallo pioneered work on lowering barriers to education for girls. Their enrollment in school surged from 113,000 to 233,000. She is recognized as the leader of education reform in Guinea, and in Africa, she is highly respected. She succeeded in preparing, negotiating, and implementing the programme d’Ajustement Structurel de l’Education with the coordination from all the involved. Mme. Bah Diallo also prepared and negotiated the second programme and the policy for Technical and Vocational Education, organized the donors and obtained their financial support before leaving the department to join UNESCO.

From 1996 to 2005, Mme Bah Diallo served in UNESCO, as Director of Basic Education, Deputy Assistant Director General for Education, Assistant Director General for Education, and advisor to the Director General of UNESCO (2005 to 2009).

In Guinea, private as well as public schools are named after her. She has received many national and international distinctions, and awards.

Mme. Bah Diallo has participated to the major international meetings on education: Jomtien (Thailand, 1990), Dakar (Senegal, 2000), and Incheon (Korea, 2015).

Mme. Bah Diallo speaks three African and three foreign languages.