Doctoral Researcher
Supervisor/advisor: Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann
Contact: fabrice.fab.niyonkuru@fau.de
Short Bio
Fabrice Niyonkuru is a Doctoral Researcher in the International Doctoral Programme Business and Human Rights: Governance Challenges in a Complex World at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), funded by the Elite Network of Bavaria and affiliated with the FAU Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg. He is based at the Chair of Corporate Sustainability Management under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Markus Beckmann. Originally from Burundi, he has an interdisciplinary and international academic background spanning Rwanda, Tanzania, and Germany. He studied Peace and Conflict Studies (M.A.) at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany; Procurement and Supply Chain Management (M.A.) at Moshi Co-operative University, Tanzania; and Public Relations (B.A.) at Université Catholique de Kabgayi, Rwanda. His studies have been supported by several competitive scholarships, including the East African Community (EAC)–KfW Scholarship for his Master’s degree in Procurement and Supply Chain Management and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Leadership for Africa Scholarship for his Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. During his studies, he held several leadership roles, including serving as Vice President of the University Student Organisation at Université Catholique de Kabgayi.
His doctoral project, Informality and Structural Exclusion in Cocoa and Cobalt Supply Chains: Redesigning Governance, examines a critical paradox in global value chains: actors central to value creation at the lower tiers of supply chains remain systematically invisible within existing governance frameworks. It assesses the extent to which current governance mechanisms account for upstream actors and how multinational corporations sustain their exclusion through existing sustainability and governance initiatives. Adopting a holistic, multi-scalar comparative approach that juxtaposes Western and Chinese corporations and links them to local production realities (e.g., cocoa production in West Africa and cobalt mining in the DRC), the research demonstrates how exclusion is produced and reproduced by global supply chain structures. It ultimately proposes governance reforms grounded in the lived realities of upstream actors that advance inclusion, accountability, justice, and a fairer distribution of value across supply chains.
Niyonkuru, F. (2025). Critical insights into human trafficking in South Africa: A review of Philip Frankel’s 2023 analysis. South African Journal of Science, 121(5/6), Art. #21334. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2025/21334