Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo (born 4 February 1961[1]) is a Togolese politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Togo from September 2008 to July 2012.

[5] He moved to Canada in 1983 on a graduate scholarship[4] and earned a degree in accounting and finance from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

[5][4] On 7 September 2008, President Faure Gnassingbé appointed Houngbo as Prime Minister of Togo; he replaced Komlan Mally, who had resigned two days earlier.

[6][19] Following his term as Prime Minister of Togo, Houngbo returned to the United Nations System in 2013 as Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnership at the International Labour Office.

[3] In 2020 he was also appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to serve on the Advisory Committee for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, chaired by Inger Andersen.

[21] On 25 March 2022 Houngbo was elected to succeed Guy Ryder as Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), becoming the first African selected for the position.