Ludo studied sociological issues with interdisciplinary approaches.

Ludo studied sociological issues with interdisciplinary approaches. His five decades of professional work created a unique exposure to how societies on four continents struggle with women and child rights. In Africa, he contributed to dialogues with governments on why population policies had not leveraged bigger scale health outcomes. He documented in Country-specific Situation Analyses the obstacles to deliver basic services for all.

He is committed to share experience with a new generation of international civil servants. He has encouraged participant observation in research on social change dynamics.

How to advocate for good governance publicly and to encourage small group dynamics at community levels, began in 1973 in Côte d’Ivoire, where as a Socio-Economist at the Service Autonome de la Programmation Sanitaire, Ministère de la Santé Publique, he coordinated interaction with the Ministries of Finance and Plan. In 1975, as Program Officer for Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, Ludo began 29 years of work with UNICEF including 7 years as Representative: in Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) and in Burkina Faso. He was Acting in Kashmir and Deputy in Sudan. He has been motivated by team-building and training opportunities in complex socio-political environments, and improved his skills to listen, for families to be inspired by their own creative thinking.

Towards the end of his career with UNICEF, Ludo was the task leader, at Headquarters in New York and subsequently in the Regional Office for West Africa, in the coordination of UNICEF’s work with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). His role accelerated the process of putting the core legal issues of the Rights of Women and Children on their agenda. He personally led discussions with the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Parliaments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. They in turn organized a global meeting in Ouagadougou in September 2002.

Ludo has contributed to social change theory, in contexts – from civil wars to dysfunctioning justice mechanisms – which are, at best, prudently dealt-with by key local actors and all stakeholders, including the international community. He was a Guest Lecturer in 2010 at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA) at the University of Louvain. Notes were published in book form in 2021: “the United Nations in 2010”.

Born in 1945, Ludo Welffens is a citizen of Belgium and resides in Côte d’Ivoire. He is married and has three children. His spouse Christiane Ekra is the first woman Professor in Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Faculty of Médecine in the National University in Abidjan.