Mr. Hilaire Mputu is Head of Sector and Regional Advisor (Central Africa) for Education at UNESCO's Regional and Multisectoral Office in Yaoundé, Cameroon (since November 2017).
Since February 2025, he has been acting Regional Director of UNESCO's Regional and Multisectoral Office in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Mr. Mputu is an economist and statistician by training, with a D.E.S.S. in development economics from the University of Auvergne (Centre de recherches et d'études sur le développement international, CERDI), Clermont-Ferrand, France. He also holds a Master's degree in applied economics from the University of Kinshasa (DRC).
Mr. Mputu joined UNESCO in 1993 as an intern in the Division of Least Developed Countries in the SHS Sector at Headquarters. In 1994, he was recruited as a supernumerary (temporary position) in the Statistics Division (now the UNESCO Institute for Statistics - UIS), where he worked mainly on the production and analysis of education data/indicators, research and capacity-building activities. As part of the cooperation between UIS and the Education Sector for the Education for All (EFA) 2000 Assessment, he was seconded to the Education Sector and recruited in 1999, with responsibility for ensuring norms and standards, particularly on the statistical aspects of the EFA 2000 Assessment, including contributing to technical assistance for the implementation of the Monitoring Learning Achievements (MLA) Project.
Following the EFA 2000 Assessment, he was assigned to the EFA International Coordination and Monitoring Division, where he contributed to the development and drafting of the World Education Report (GMR). In 2006, he joined the Division of Educational Policies and Strategies, with the task of providing advice and technical support to member states, notably through technical assistance in educational policies, planning and management, including the development of Education Management Information Systems (EMIS). He contributed to the development of key tools: (i) OpenEMIS software for EMIS; (ii) EPPSim and; (iii) SimuED - a simulation model for educational policies and strategies.
From 2012 to 2013, he held the position of Team Leader for the Teacher Policy and Development unit within the Teacher Policy and Training Section. From 2014 to 2017, he worked in the Educational Policy Section, where he contributed to: (i) research and knowledge production to inform the global debate on emerging education policy issues, in particular on school management and leadership; (ii) evaluation of public (education) policies in support of national education reforms (DRC, Mozambique, Sudan, Zambia); (iii) technical assistance (policy advice) and capacity building for the formulation of sound educational policies and plans, including the integration of the Education 2030 Agenda (Chad, Congo, DRC, Madagascar, Mozambique). In addition to the responsibilities mentioned above, Mr. Mputu was Education Sector Focal Point for the intersectoral platform “Priority Africa: coordination and follow-up of UNESCO's action plan for Africa”, from 2005 to 2017.