Ornella Moderan is an independent researcher and policy advisor whose work focuses on political and security dynamics in the Sahel and West Africa. Her background includes working with civil society to help structure societal demand for security sector accountability in conflict-affected West African countries, leading a major humanitarian programme in Mali, and coordinating community-level peace building programming in the Liptako Gourma borderlands. She has also worked with national governments and international organisations (such as the ECOWAS, African Union, European Union, and United Nations), supporting strategy development and stakeholder engagement initiatives.

Ornella’s areas of expertise include gender and violence, political transitions, electoral processes, security sector reform, and political economy of conflict and instability. She became the head of the Sahel programme and Bamako office of the Institute for Security Studies in 2020, a position she held for two years. In October 2022, Ornella joined the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute as a non-resident Associate. She is also an Associate Fellow with the Africa Programme of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies.

Ornella holds a Masters’ degree in International Security from Sciences-Po Paris, and graduate qualification in Criminology from the University of Grenoble. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law, and an Advisory Board Member of the ENACT Programme which focuses on Enhancing Africa’s response to transnational organised crime.