Togo: Essi Farida Geraldo

Born in 1991 in Lomé, Togo, Essi Farida Geraldo is the founder and manager of ARCHID’AR, an architectural firm in Lomé, and CEO of the Youth Architect Community Association (YAC), a program in Lomé that trains youth in becoming green leaders and entrepreneurs. Geraldo holds a master’s in architecture and urbanism from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at L’École Africaine des Métiers de l’Architecture et de l’Urbanisme (EAMAU) in Lomé. She also holds a certification in public management from the University of Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona, a certification in environmental education from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a certification in renewable energy from the University of South Africa (Power Africa) in Pretoria, South Africa (2018). Geraldo is continuing her education with a thesis on sustainable urban development, focusing on materials that are both bio-sourced and affordable for communities that predominately rely on self-construction for housing (2025).

Geraldo serves as the Togo Country Chair for the Group of 100 Global Women (G100) Engineering and Energy Team (2023–), and is a member of the West Africa Scientific Committee of the International Forum on Innovative Materials and Sustainable Construction (MICD-AO). She also participated on the TOGO Focal Point of the Green Building Committee of the Union of African Architects (2023–2025). Geraldo worked as the city planning officer at the Ministry of Urban Planning and Housing in Togo (2017–2019), and served as the Togo Member of Parliament for the State of African Diaspora. She joined L’Ordre national des architectes du Togo in 2016. She was a panelist at the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Construction (MICD-AO) in Dakar, Senegal, presenting on the theme of “Sustainable construction, assessment of the environmental performance of buildings and climate change: challenges and issues,” and participated in the Africa Carbon Forum in Cotonou, Benin (2017).

Essi Farida Geraldo earned the Togolese Institute of Architects (L’Ordre national des architectes du Togo — ONAT) Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in 2024; was nominated for Togolese Woman of Influence of the Year at the Africa Girls and Women Summit (2024); was recognized as one of the “20 Inspirational African Diaspora Professional Women in Europe” by African Diaspora Professional Women in Europe (ADIPWE) in 2021; earned the Recognition of Merit by L’Ordre national des Architectes du Togo in 2021;  earned recognition as one of ten women nominated for “Women Impact of Change” for Togo by AGPEF (2021); was named an Obama Leader by the Obama Foundation (2019), inspiring her memoir Comment j’ai rencontré le couple Obama (2020); and she was named a Mandela Washington Fellow by the U.S. Department of State (2018).