Jennifer Okaima Piette is a writer and communications professional. She joined the World Bank Group as a communications consultant in 2017 and currently leads the communications and external engagement strategy for Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All), the premier advocacy platform for international cooperation on sustainable transport and mobility within the World Bank Transport Global Practice.
Before joining the Bank, Jennifer has spent more than seven years in journalism (as a reporter, online editor, and media trainer) – covering development stories in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the United States, for Voice of America, Global Press Journal, The Nation Newspaper, Devex, etc. In 2018, UNICEF recruited her to develop and implement a communications strategy for a national advocacy campaign to end open defecation in Nigeria. The campaign, “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet,” which was launched in November 2019 by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, in partnership with development organizations, the media, and the private sector, led to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signing an executive order to prioritize Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Nigeria.
Jennifer also has experience in corporate communications. She worked as an associate consultant at Africa Practice, a global strategic advisory firm operating at the nexus of industry and government. She provided support in managing the accounts of private companies and non-profit organizations. In 2013, with a grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the International Reporting Project New Media Fellowship, Jennifer spent a year reporting on global health and development issues in rural Nigeria. The many underreported issues she found during this fellowship and some mainstream media editors’ unwillingness to publish these stories due to their lack of commercial value inspired her to launch RuralReporters.com, an online news and repository platform focused on rural issues. She led a team of reporters and writers spread across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe to generate content from their communities for the platform. Rural Reporters News Network is a model for news coverage on rural issues. Jennifer has a Master of Arts degree in Business and Economics (journalism) from Columbia University and a degree in Mass Communication from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism. She is a recipient of many awards, including the Foreign Press Association award, Innovative Young Journalist award, and the Nigerian National Youth Leadership award.