Yvonne Ndege

Yvonne Ndege is a British television and online news journalist. She is the West Africa correspondent for the Al Jazeera English television channel.

Early life

Yvonne’s parents emigrated to the UK from Kenya in the early 1970s, her Father was a well known journalist. Yvonne grew up and was educated at primary and secondary school level, in London Borough of Bexley. She graduated from the University of London′s Goldsmith's College in 1998, and holds a second Master’s degree from the London School of Economics in the year.

Career

Yvonne’s journalism career began at the BBC British Broadcasting Corporation as a 14 year old intern in 1991. Following completion of secondary school and university, Yvonne landed a job as a Researcher on BBC Panorama, one of the corporations most prestigious investigative documentary show’s. Yvonne worked her way up to become a Producer and Senior Producer moving onto shows such as BBC Newsnight and working on Radio 4, before being talented spotted by BBC managers to be one of the corporation’s on air faces. Yvonne worked as an on-air Correspondent on BBC News, Breakfast, World and the various other programmes and channels at the Beeb covering the UK, Europe and US news and current affairs. In 2007 she was headhunted by Al Jazeera English television to be one of the launch faces of the channel’s East Africa bureau, in Nairobi Kenya. Less than two years later Yvonne was asked to launch Al Jazeera’s West Africa operation in Nigeria, where Yvonne worked for 7 years as Bureau Chief & Correspondent for the region. During her time at Al Jazeera Yvonne reported from and anchored programmes from over 30 countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2010, Yvonne was a joint-recipient of the UN Correspondent's Association Prize for Journalism for her exclusive reports on the conflict in DRC. Yvonne gained a reputation for high profile access and rigorous interviews, having interviewed the leaders Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, South Sudan and Rwanda and Zimbabwe among other nations. She is also well known for reporting the Boko Haram conflict in northern Nigeria, and the Bring Back Our Girls story, along with the situation in South Sudan, and unrest in DRC.

In 2017 Yvonne was recruited by the United Nations to lead communications for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Nairobi, Kenya. As a Journalist and communications professional, Yvonne brings more than 18 years communications experience to the table. In addition to working for some of the world’s most prestigious media organisations and the UN, Yvonne is also a well known respected media strategist coach, trainer and adviser. Yvonne works regularly on as an international MC and moderator. Clients include the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank, and African Union. In 2017 Yvonne set up her own media and communications company HKYN Media, with her long term professional media colleague and business partner Heidi Kingstone.. She is also mother to a daughter born in 2014, Safari.

External links

• Yvonne Ndege on Twitter
• "Field Correspondents". Al Jazeera English. n.d. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
• "Yvonne Ndege". BBC News. 30 April 2003. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
• "AJ.English profile".