Honorine Wendyam Ilboudo

Honorine Wendyam Ilboudo is a gender equity advocate and researcher from Burkina Faso, currently pursuing an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford. She is a Titular AfOx Scholar at the University of Oxford and a member of St Peter’s College. Honorine is committed to advancing survivor-centred policy and programming to address gender-based violence across Africa.

She recently graduated from Williams College with a degree in Sociology and Psychology. Her academic and advocacy work is grounded in lived experience and cross-cultural research. At Williams, she conducted fieldwork across Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, exploring how West African popular music shapes ideals of womanhood, motherhood and female submissiveness. Her senior thesis combined ethnography and media analysis to examine how cultural narratives influence behaviour and social norms. She has also worked as a helpline advocate for survivors and interned with women’s rights organisations focused on women and girls’ health.

Honorine has been recognised with several prestigious awards, including the Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship, the Martin-Wilson Fellowship at Williams College, and the AfOx Titular Scholarship. At Oxford, she aims to strengthen her research skills and contribute to effective, evidence-based interventions that challenge harmful gender norms and improve protections for women and girls.

Outside of her academic work, she enjoys reading, cooking traditional West African meals, experimenting with new recipes, travelling, and listening to music—a passion she sees as both a source of joy and a lens for social transformation.