Liesl Louw-Vaudran is an independent journalist and analyst focusing on African issues. She works as a consultant for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria and writes for the Mail&Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg. Until June 2013 she was editor of The Africa.org, the ISS bi-monthly publication on African politics. Before moving to the ISS, she was Africa Editor at Media24 newspapers.

For the past 20 years, Liesl has lived and worked as foreign correspondent in various countries, initially based in France (1994-2000) and in Senegal (2000 to 2003). She also reported from Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere for Radio France International, the SABC, Independent Newspapers of South Africa and Media24.

She is the author of “Anderkant Timboektoe” (Beyond Timbuktu, 2008), about her experiences working as a journalist in West Africa. She has also contributed to several books on journalism and is a member of the judging panel of the annual Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism awards. Liesl lectures in International Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch Journalism department and is a regular commentator on African issues in local and international media.