Raphael Ouattara is NDI's resident senior program director in Mali and Guinea, where he manages Institute programs related to elections, legislative oversight, women's participation, political party strengthening, extractive industries transparency and citizen election observation. NDI also calls on Mr. Ouattara to lead or participate in assessment missions, such as in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, and to provide technical and strategic support to NDI offices in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

Previously, Mr. Ouattara worked as a senior elections consultant for NDI in Haiti from August 1999 to February 2000. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the vice chairman of the first electoral commission in his native Côte d'Ivoire. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Ouattara was the president of the Côte d'Ivoire branch of the International Association for Democracy in Africa, an NGO promoting democratic values, and is well-known for its conflict management and civic education work in Côte d’Ivoire. He is also one of the founders of the National Elections Observatory in Côte d’Ivoire.

Mr. Ouattara is a psychologist by training, having earned his doctorate from the University of Paris Sorbonne after which he taught methodology and statistical approaches in the social sciences at the University of Abidjan from 1984 to 2002. He also holds a degree in political science from the University of Paris I.