Lansana Kouyaté (born 1950) is a Guinean politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Guinea from 2007 to 2008. Previously he was Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from 1997 to 2002.
Kouyaté was born in Koba, Guinea, then a French colony. He studied administration at the University of Conakry before joining the civil service.
In 1976, he was appointed as Director of Labour, then the following year, moved to become Director of Trade, Prices and Statistics, where he had responsibility for state-owned companies.
In 1982, Kouyaté worked on a rice development project, then moved to the diplomatic service, joining Guinea’s delegation in Cote d’Ivoire. In 1985, he returned to the Foreign Ministry in Conakry as head of African and Organisation of African Unity affairs.
Two years later, he became Guinea’s ambassador to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria and Turkey.
In 1992, he became Guinea’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, where he became Vice President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
In 1993, he was appointed as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Somalia for the UNOSOM II mission, then in February 1994 became the Acting Representative.
In June 1994, he became the Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Political Affairs, one of his first missions being a tour around ECOWAS member states to discuss the situation in Liberia.
He continued his involvement in discussions to build regional support for a resolution of the First Liberian Civil War. He left this job in September 1997 to become the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a post he held until February 2002.
He received different distinctions and decorations such as Commander of the Mono Order (Togo, 1998), Commander of the Order of the Star of Africa (Liberia, 1998), Commander of the Legion of Honor (France, 2000), Commander of the National Order of Mali (Mali,2001), Commander of the Memorial Peace (Awarded to UNESCO ) by the International Association of Soldiers for Peace “Association peacekeepers of the UN”, Graduated from the Gold Medal of the Universal League of Public Good N ° 45729, awarded on April 08, 2019 in Paris, Crans Montana Forum Prize (2001) or African Leadership Award (Morocco, 2015).