Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa

pplaaf.org

Whistleblower Organizations

Description

PPLAAF, the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa, is an organization dedicated to protecting whistleblowers and holding power to account across the African continent. It brings together legal and regional experts, investigators and activists who work across disciplines and borders to support people who expose corruption and other wrongdoing. The organization operates from a Dakar office and a Johannesburg office. Its secretariat includes a director of strategy, a director of programmes, a chief operations officer, a director of investigations and several project officers.

Staff work directly with whistleblowers throughout Africa on case coordination, partnerships and strategic advocacy. They collaborate with legal experts, journalists and civil society organisations to advance whistleblower protection and promote transparency. Some staff focus on West and Central Africa through projects such as SecFin, and document corruption and human rights violations, including the environmental and financial dealings of the Wagner Group.

PPLAAF is led by an executive director based in Dakar. Its founder, William Bourdon, is a Paris-based lawyer who also founded the French litigation and advocacy organisation Sherpa in 2001. He has represented whistleblowers including Edward Snowden, Herve Falciani and Antoine Deltour.

The organisation has a board chaired by an anti-corruption specialist. Its administrators come from investigative journalism, human rights and governance backgrounds. It also has a wider advisory board of journalists, lawyers, academics and activists from Africa, Europe and North America, with experience in anti-corruption, tax justice, whistleblower law and digital security.

One strategic advisor also co-directs the related organisation Climate Whistleblowers. Through this network, PPLAAF combines legal support, investigation, case coordination and advocacy to protect whistleblowers and strengthen accountability in West, Central and Southern Africa.