Leadership

Country Director

Charles Guy Makongo has been working for IMA World Health since 2019. He started as the Head of the Goma office. From November 2020 to December 2022, he served as the Head of Office/Chief of Party of IMA’s Counter Gender-Based Violence project, known locally as Tushinde, with the special assignment to support the effective and successful implementation of IMA World Health’s portfolio in Eastern DRC. In January 2023, he began his role as the CORUS/IMA Country Director for the DRC office.

Makongo worked for the American Bar Association as the Deputy Chief of Party/Senior Legal Advisor, for the USAID funded project Expanding Access to Justice in Somalia in October 2018. Prior to joining the Somalia project, Makongo served the American Bar Association in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he successfully managed the implementation of a wide range of multi-funder, multi-partner, multi-component and multi-million-dollar programs of human rights and rule of law projects as the program Country Director from February 2010 to October 2018. From June 2009 through January 2010, Makongo served as the director to the Dutch Embassy funded American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, or ABA ROLI, in Maniema province to combat sexual and gender-based violence.

Prior to joining ABA ROLI, Makongo worked for several international organizations, including a SightFirst Project, funded by the Lions Club International Foundation, Voluntary Service Overseas. He was also a project manager and national expert under the sphere of European Union-Cameroon Cooperation and the PACDET human rights pilot project, which stands for Programme for the Amelioration of Detention Conditions and Respect for Human Rights. The project worked to improve legal and material detention conditions in Cameroon prisons.

Makongo is a former member of the Cameroon Ministry of Justice Unit to combat corruption within the justice system, a former member of the Cameroon chapter of the International Prison Watch and a former member of the Cameroon chapter of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

He recently launched a campaign called #ThinkPositiveWorkPlace to fight against discrimination and disrespect in the workplace.

Makongo graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon with a License in Law. He obtained his Master Two in International Relations/International Disputes from the International Relations Institute of Cameroon.

Chief of Party, SEMI Project

Susan Girois is a senior public health and medical professional with over 20 years of healthcare, complex emergency and disability programme management and service provision experience. In the development field, she has spent over 10 years in programme leadership and management roles with donors including FCDO, USAID and the World Bank. She has deep experience in value-based care delivery and systems improvement, serving as both a physician and a manager. Her areas of health expertise include primary care, female care, and HIV. Over her career, she has developed a team-based and collaborative approach to project management, working to ensure partners and donors are included in decision-making. Her approach places continuous feedback and quality improvement at its core to ensure accountability to both the populations served and to donor organisations. As a mission-driven and accountable leader, Susan has successfully led large and geographically dispersed teams in implementing health programs. 

Benoit Mibulumukini, MD, MPH, serves as the Deputy Team Leader for the Services Essentiels de Santé Maternelle et Infantile project, or SEMI for short, which is based in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Mibulumukini is a physician, public health professional and seasoned project manager, with 23 years of experience in clinical care, health care management, health systems strengthening and enhancing essential service delivery in some of the most remote areas of the DRC. He is an expert in child health and vaccination programs, and worked for 15 years as Field Coordinator, Immunization specialist, Project Manager and Strategic Technical Advisor for SANRU and covering health zones in more than 7 provinces.

Dr. Mibulumukini earned his medical degree from University of Kinshasa and holds a master’s in public health from the Nancy University School of Public Health in France.

Bernard Ngoy, MD, MPH, is a Congolese physician who received his Medical Doctor Diploma in General Human Medicine at the University of Kinshasa in 2001.

After serving as a medical officer at Bulape Hospital for seven years, he studied to receive his Master’s in Public Health from the University of Kinshasa School of Public Health.

Dr. Ngoy has particular experience in the management of public health projects and programs and has been working with IMA World Health for five years