On May 12, 2006, E&EM Professional Degree student Antoinette Nyomba met in New York City with the Georgette Koko, who is the current Vice Premier Minister for Environment, Nature Protection, Research and Technology in Gabon, West Africa. Antoinette and Vice Premier Minister Koko discussed environmental protection needs and opportunities in Gabon, utilizing the knowledge she has gained during her E&EM graduate studies at GW.
Vice Premier Minister Koko expressed a strong interest in establishing a new government agency similar to the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S. Specifically, they discussed utilizing some of the EPA organizational concepts as part of a government reorganization that is underway in Gabon.
Antoinette, who served in various senior environmental and public health positions in the federal government in Gabon, previously worked with Vice Premier Minister Koko in Libreville, the capital city of Gabon. Just prior to coming to GW, Antoinette served for six years as the Director of the Institute of Public Hygiene and Sanitation in the Ministry of Health.
Slightly smaller than Colorado, Gabon has an area of 103,347sq.mi. Its capital city is Libreville, which has 673,995 inhabitants. The overall Gabonese population is less than 1.5 million. The official language is French but numerous other languages serve as the principal written and spoken languages of the people, such as Fang, Myene, Nzebi, Punu and Teke.