Babatope Akinwande is the CIFOR Regional Communications Officer for Africa based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. His broadcasting career started with the BBC as an Abidjan correspondent. He also worked for Radio France International and Deutsche Welle Radio as a stringer, and for World Press Review as a Francophone Africa correspondent. Since then, he has worked in international development as well as humanitarian and development communications for International Alert, Tearfund, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).