Afou collaborated with IRC from 2017 to 2020 when she was the country lead of the Watershed: empowering citizens programme in Mali: a five-year strategic programme to strengthen the ability of citizens to hold governments and service providers accountable for the services they deliver. Currently she is the country coordinator for IRC in Mali and Niger. She is responsible for initiating and managing the country programme and partnerships, and conceptualising projects with partners to strengthen the Mali Country Programme.
Afou has a doctoral degree in Pharmacy from the University of Science, Techniques and Technologies in Bamako. She holds several certificates from the MS-Training Centre for Development Co-operation, Arusha, Tanzania in Policy Analysis and Advocacy, Project Planning and Management, Gender and Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation. Afou brings over ten years of experience in development cooperation working with non-profit organisation, of which six years in the water and sanitation sector. She gathered many years of experiences in planning and management of programmes / projects, lobbying-advocacy strategy development and campaigns, community mobilisation and capacity building of Civil Society Organisations, grant management and partnership management.