Catherine Defontaine is a Senior Operations Officer in the World Bank's Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) group, where she coordinates the Bank's Risk and Resilience Assessments (RRAs) and provides operational support to country teams and CMUs, with focus on Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritania. She has led several RRAs (Lake Chad region, The Gambia and Guinea), and supported the development and implementation of Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessments (RPBAs) in Cameroon and the Central African Republic, as well as other analytical and country engagement products. She has also contributed to a wide range of operational programs, working for several Practice Groups, including Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI), Governance, Education and Agriculture. Catherine holds a master's degree in International Security and African Studies from Sciences Po Paris, and MA in European studies and International Relations from Pantheon Sorbonne University and a BA in History from Sorbonne University.