Adrian Wilkinson
Adrian is a leading specialist on small arms control, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and operational disarmament. He was director of the UN Disarmament Mission (SEESAC) before which he was the head of technology and standards at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). Adrian was a member of the UN Group of Government Experts (GGE) on Small Arms and Light Weapons Disposal and the advisor to the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs for the GGE on Conventional Ammunition; he is still a primary advisor to UN Office for Disarmament Affairs on weapons and explosive safety. He has translated his wide operational experience into policy development through the development of international standards. He has written widely on Small Arms Control and Disarmament. Adrian previously served for 20 years in the British Army, many as a Senior Ammunition Technical Officer (ATO), which included operational and counter-terrorist bomb disposal experience in Northern Ireland, Gulf 1991, Falkland Islands, Albania, Bosnia, West Bank / Gaza and North West Europe. He also established the UK Ammunition Demilitarisation Facility. Adrian holds master’s degree in international conflict analysis and Explosive Ordnance Engineering (EOE). He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Security Professional (CSyP). He is now the Director of Explosive Capabilities Limited, although is currently on leave of absence as the Arms Expert on the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee Monitoring Panel for Sudan.
Amanuel Mehreteab Gebremedhin
Amanuel is a Senior Expert in various post-conflict issues, especially DDR, SSR and livelihood. He has over 30 years of experience in developing and implementing national, donor and United Nations (UN) policies on various peacebuilding, reintegration and stabilisation issues, and has supported the development of donors’ and UN strategies through participatory approaches to ensure national ownership and alignment with government priorities. He has led and managed large peacebuilding and stabilisation programmes, particularly of community security and DDR, including supervision of various professional staff, and has proven expertise in results-based management. He has worked with DDR commissions as Senior Policy Advisor, Director General and Commissioner, and has a vast experience of post-conflict countries, including Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Cameroun, Uganda, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Ghana. Amanuel has developed strong expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods and analyses. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology, a Master’s degree in Development study, with a focus on rural development, and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration.
Anthony Gunter
Anthony Gunter is an expert and researcher/practitioner in the areas of youth development and criminal justice. With more than 20 years experience, his work has largely focussed on post-16 transitions, community policing, young people in conflict with the law, youth violence, and the formulation/ evaluation of policies and preventative practice. Whilst his practical experience of devising community and youth-led consultation strategies and policy solutions has mainly been undertaken in the UK, he also has experience of working in the Caribbean. As a Principal Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of East London his teaching and research expertise extends to youth development and violence in the Global South pertaining to child soldiers, radicalisation, and urban street gangs. He has published his research findings in monographs, book chapters, journal articles, reports and other online media. He holds a PhD in Criminology and an MA in Applied Anthropology & Community & Youth Work.
Arif Qaraeen
Arif is an agricultural, rural development and natural resources specialist with over 35 years experience working in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. As a strategist and policy analyst, he is conversant with project identification, design, planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Arif has a long field experience, working for the FAO, the World Bank and Danida as well as consulting for UNOPS and IFAD among others. Throughout his various positions, he managed multi-disciplinary programmes and sectors, coordinating several hundred employees. Throughout his career, his philosophy has been to empower rural communities to support themselves, to sustain their resources and livelihoods based upon their own innovations and the nurturing of rural institutions, cooperatives, farmers’ union, water-users associations, community forestry and micro-finance.
Arno Haegens
Arno has a Master’s degree in mass communication, with a specialisation in development communication, with over 18 years of experience in information, communication and knowledge management support services to a wide variety of clients in over 32 countries in Africa and South East Asia. Arno has worked in sectors including livestock, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, human rights, customs, integrated water resources management, EU visibility and partnerships in South East Asia, local government reform, food safety and security, financial transparency and accountability, and institutional development and strengthening. Arno is familiar with the Project Cycle Management approach, having worked with financial institutions such as the European Union, World Bank, DFID and United Nations.
Beatrice Winkler
Beatrice holds a master’s degree in International Humanitarian Action and has been working for the last ten years in the field of protection/child protection and programme management for different local and international humanitarian organizations (ICRC, UNICEF, NGO’s) in various countries (CAR, DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Greece etc.). Beatrice has technical expertise and experience in protection of children on the move and other displaced and conflict-affected populations, in particular related to family tracing, missing migrants, case management, mine risk education and reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces and armed groups, as well as in capacity development of local actors. Furthermore, Beatrice is trained and used to do research and analysis to inform programming and strategic decisions and has designed and conducted various studies, reviews and assessments in different contexts. Beatrice is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish.
Benjamin Petrini
Benjamin Petrini is a Research Fellow at The International Institute for Strategic Studies, currently based in Washington DC. He conducts research and outreach activities on conflict, fragility and international development, with a specific focus on the Africa region and Latin America. Priorly, Benjamin was a full-time consultant with the World Bank for over ten years focusing on fragility, conflict and forced displacement issues. Over the years, Benjamin completed assignments with other multilateral development banks (including, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank), consulting firms and the non-profit sector. He conducted research on and/or worked in the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes Region, the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, among others. Benjamin holds a PhD in Development Studies from SOAS (London).
Chandra Sriram
Chandra Lekha Sriram is Professor of International Law and International Relations and Director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict at the University of East London. She is the author of and co-editor of numerous books and articles on transitional justice and power-sharing. She received her PhD in Politics from Princeton University in 2000 and her JD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994.
Chizu Matsushita
Chizu Matsushita has worked internationally for 20 years in Africa, South East and Central Asia, the Middle East, Balkans and the South Pacific, including as a protection officer at regional, country and field offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Chizu managed multi-cultural teams and coordinated strategic planning, regional and country programmes and projects. She worked with refugees, returnees, their host community members, national Governments, international, civil society and community-based organisations. Chizu is passionate about supporting the process of participatory needs assessment and community development that takes into account the age, gender and diversity mainstreaming principles, as well as facilitating inclusive dialogues and workshops, designing and delivering capacity-building sessions. She comes at ease with engaging stakeholders to discuss challenges, practices and lessons learned on diverse issues, from international treaty implementation to day-to-day running of a project. Chizu offers approaches to empower those who are involved and to honor the process of learning.
Chris Graveson
Mr. Graveson worked with the New Zealand Police for 36 years where he notably held the position of the National Coordinator Youth Aid. Youth Aid is a specialist group of Police Officers trained to deal with children in conflict with the law and/or have care and protection issues. While a member of Police, Chris worked as a consultant to UNICEF and other agencies in a number of countries advising and training police, social workers and judiciary on the issues involving child rights for children in contact or conflict with the law. Chris is a strong advocate of the multi-agency approach enabling the strengths of all involved to achieve better outcomes for children. Since retiring from the police in 2012, Chris has worked as an international advisor and trainer on international standards and best practice when children in contact or conflict with the law to ensure their rights are protected and all the decisions and actions made are in the best interests of the child.
Chrissie Hirst
Chrissie Hirst, a British citizen, graduated from Cambridge University and has two master’s degrees with distinction, from the London School of Economics and the Centre for Peace & Reconciliation at Coventry University. She has worked in international development since 1997 for a variety of different civil society organisations, the UN and OSCE, with twelve years of field-based experience, primarily in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Georgia. With a focus on post-conflict contexts, Chrissie’s past work has included field programme management, policy and advocacy, research, resource development, civil society capacity development and grantmaking. She has thematic experience of democratization, peacebuilding and inclusive development, minority rights, migration, and arms control, and a keen interest in monitoring, evaluation and learning, the topic of her MA thesis. Since 2018 Chrissie has managed international grants for the Corra Foundation in Edinburgh, UK, combining this with occasional consultancy work on programme design, strategic reviews, research, and organisational safeguarding policy development. She has Serbian and French language skills, and is the author of a number of publications on minority rights, peacebuilding and small arms control.
Claudia Seymour
Claudia Seymour is an applied researcher with 15 years of experience, working primarily in conflict-affected environments in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research specialisations include youth, child protection, resilience to armed violence, humanitarian assistance, and security sector reform. She has served with a range of UN bodies, including the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UNICEF and the UN Group of Experts on the DRC and has led in-depth assessments, studies and evaluations for a variety of international and non-governmental organizations, in countries including Burundi, Central African Republic, DRC, Kenya and Liberia. She is currently a Research Associate with the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and the Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
She holds a PhD in Development Studies and an MA in International Relations and Economics.
Cornelis Steenken
Cornelis ”Kees” Steenken is an expert on DDR and has conducted numerous DDR assessments, evaluations, reviews, advisory missions as well as facilitated DDR workshops in Libya, Somalia, Myanmar, Philippines, Burundi, CAR, Mali and Colombia. Retiring from the Navy in 2002, he continued as Director of DDR Programmes at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, further developing and strengthening all aspects of DDR and co-authored the DDR Handbook – A Field and Classroom Guide and initiated the Integrated DDR Training Group (IDDRTG) which brought together like minded DDR training centers to help standardize an inclusive approach to global DDR Training. In 2008, Kees was selected to be the first Coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR where he helped coordinate 21 UN Agencies working with the IDDRS and DDR at both the Policy and Field levels. This led to closer liaison with SALW, SSR, Mine Action and other post conflict actors.
Kees was an integral part of the development of the UN Integrated DDR Standards, which was the first significant Multi-Agency UN DDR guidance document which helped standardize terminology and procedures for DDR throughout the UN and was accepted by the EU. Fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish and French, Kees strongly believes in cooperation and coordination between all post-conflict actors.
DB Subedi
Dr. DB Subedi is an expert and researcher in conflict transformation, peacebuilding, community-based reintegration, and community security and violence prevention. His current and previous research specialisation focuses on an intersection between conflict, security and development nexus, and security challenges in post-conflict countries in South and South East Asia. He possesses more than 12 years of long-term as well as short-term experience in project management, training, teaching and research in the field of peacebuilding and development from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Myanmar and Australia. He also specialises in the evaluation of peace and security programmes. DB has a PhD in Peace, Conflict and Security Studies from the University of New England Australia where he conducted a research on reintegration and rehabilitation of Maoists ex-combatants and its impacts on post-war recovery and peacebuilding in Nepal. Currently DB is an adjunct lecturer in Peace Studies at the University of New England, Australia and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Security Governance in Canada. He has provided consultancy services to a number of international agencies including United Nations Development Programme, UN Women, UNICEF Nepal, CARE Nepal, Government of Nepal, International Alert, and Peacebuilding and Development Institute in Sri Lanka. DB is an author of more than a dozen of journal articles, book chapters, policy briefing papers and is a co-editor of the volume Cultivating Peace published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK in 2014.
Dee Brillenburg Wurth
Dee Brillenburg Wurth brings 24 years of experience on children affected by armed conflict, having worked for NGOs and United Nations Peacekeeping Missions in more than ten countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. She was Senior Child Protection Advisor for the UN missions in Burundi (BINUB), Afghanistan (UNAMA), and the DRC (MONUSCO). Her achievements include negotiations with Governments and more than 30 non-state armed groups to stop and prevent child recruitment, leading to the release of thousands of children among the ranks of parties to conflict. She is originally a communications specialist, with an MA in writing for Film and Television. In that capacity she wrote for the Dutch national television, articles and columns for magazines, as well as developing a 10-part series for vulnerable youth in South-East Asia and a child rights magazine in East Timor that became the primary school curriculum. She also brings experience in child reintegration, psycho-social support and is an inspired trainer.
Deepak Prakash Bhatt
Deepak Prakash Bhatt is an expert on civil military relations, security and peacebuilding issues. He has served as a member of the Technical Committee and Secretariat of the Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist Army Combatants, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, from March 2009 to December 2012. Furthermore, he is a Visiting Faculty Member at the Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD), Department of Conflict, Peace and Development Studies (DCPDS), Tribhuwan University, and Institute for Crisis Management Studies (ICMS), in Kathmandu. He has worked as a consultant with the United Nations Integrated Rehabilitation Programme, UNDP on ‘socio-economic impact of the return of the Voluntary Retirees to communities’. He has published a book, several articles in books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and authored policy briefs and papers. Deepak holds a PhD from the School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi.
Ele Jan Saaf
Ele Jan Saaf is a Dutch water management consultant with a degree in Public Administration. He brings expertise in capacity development, policy and programme development, and monitoring & evaluation related to integrated water resources management, utility management, WASH and sustainable development. Ele Jan further brings expertise in programming on transboundary conflicts over water resources. In the Middle East Ele Jan worked with the EU and the Dutch government on negotiations on water availability between Israel, Palestine and Jordan. As strategic advisor for the Sahel, Ele Jan worked with various bilateral donors on disaster risk reduction and capacity building for organisations engaged in Track 2 peace processes. For the MEDRC institute he has evaluated, revised and contributed to developing a multilateral dialogue platform for Track 1 negotiations on water and peace. As a member of the IUCN Commission for Ecosystem Management and as a board member of the Mediterranean Institute for Water (Institut Mediteranée de l’Eau – IME) Ele Jan is actively engaged in cooperation for water, nature and livelihoods, and to prevent possible conflict on water due to scarcities.
Fatuma Ibrahim
Fatuma Ibrahim is the former Chief of Child Protection for UNICEF South Sudan. She is a specialist in child protection in emergencies and has extensive experience in working with children in conflict and post conflict situations. Altogether Fatuma brings more than 20 years of experience in the field of child protection in emergencies mainly in Eastern and Western Africa and Iraq. She has led DDR programmes for children Liberia, South Sudan and Uganda while working for Save the Children Sweden and UNICEF. For several years Fatuma was responsible for training of peacekeepers on child rights and child protection in Eastern and Central Africa. Fatuma is also interested in Transitional Justice and has been involved in design and implementation of the children’s programme within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Liberia.
François Lenfant
François Lenfant is based in Amsterdam and has extensive experience in the international development sector, mostly in Africa. He has held various positions, from funding officer to senior policy analyst in different international Non-Governmental Organisations, such as Catholic Relief Services, Cordaid, Oxfam Novib and Education Development Center, in the US, Africa and in the Netherlands. He is currently guest researcher at the University of Amsterdam and independent consultant. Recent assignments include conducting a research on socio-economic (re)integration of groups most affected by the conflict in Burundi, including ex-combatants, refugees and IDP’s, evaluating a program aimed at increasing citizenship and women political participation at all levels of society in Eastern DRC, conducting research on the impact of the mining industry on local communities in Mali, for International Alert, and evaluating a project aimed at strengthening the voice of African civil society and human rights defenders in the international human rights system, for Civicus. His area of expertise is Corporate Social Responsibility, looking specifically at the impact of multistakeholder partnerships and at the role of business in development. He has published a number of articles on the topic in various scientific journals, Journal of Business Ethics, Development in Practice, and Business in Society. François holds a masters in International Development from American University, and is finalizing his phd. He is fluent in French, Dutch and English, and conversant in Spanish and Portuguese.
George Kut
George Kut holds a doctorate degree in International Studies and Social Sciences and a MA degree in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University, UK. Dr. Kut has over 21 years’ professional experience supporting participatory research and training, conflict analysis, conflict early warning and early response, conflict sensitivity planning, peacebuilding and indigenous conflict resolution, women empowerment, child protection, gender and prevention of violent extremism. His expertise cuts across policy, academia and policy with experience majourly in Africa, supporting interventions by local communities in conflict and post conflict situations, humanitarian agencies, academic institutions, traditional authorities, national governments, intergovernmental bodies, nongovernmental organisations, UN agencies and other international development agencies.
Gregory Mthembu-Salter
Gregory is a political economist with 20 years of experience of fieldwork, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. He was the finance expert for the UN Group of Experts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and was among the first to propose that companies sourcing minerals from conflict areas perform due diligence to determine the source of their supplies and nature of their suppliers. He, together with the OECD, drafted precise guidelines for this due diligence, which have since been adopted by a UN Security Council Resolution, and incorporated into US and Congolese law. Gregory specialises in customised political economic research and due diligence, often, but not always concerning natural resources and conflict. Having written Country Reports for the respected Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist, for twenty years, he has developed strong writing and analytical skills, and understands deadlines. He also writes regularly for The Africa Report, and more occasionally for South Africa’s Mail & Guardian and other publications. He has written and published widely, not only on political economy, but also agriculture, music and travel.
Habib El Mrabt
Habib brings over 15 years of experience in counter violence and prevention of radicalization in the MENA region. He has a proven track record as a trainer in peace building, security, Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) and reintegration, with a deep understanding of the cultural, political and religious issues, especially in Libya, Jordan, Tunisia and Iraq. He works on dialogue facilitation, mediation with real field experience dealing with ISIS and Al Qaeda. He provides training on Advanced Dialogue & Leadership for former commanders; and Human Development and training to Senior Officers for the Army Joint Command and Staff. Habib is furthermore extensively consulting on business management & development for major private sector companies in the MENA region. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Public Law and is an Islamic scholar.
Hirut Tefferi
Hirut is a child protection expert with 32 years of experience working with different INGOs and UNICEF in eastern, central and west African countries. She has worked directly with children in difficult situations including children in orphanages, street children, children with disabilities and children in armed conflict and displacement. Hirut has experience with psycho-social and (Sexual) Gender Based Violence (GBV) programming. She has designed and coordinated several research projects and evaluations and worked extensively in post-conflict and emergency contexts. Hirut has a bachelor degree in psychology and a master degree in educational measurement and evaluation.
Hisae Kato
Hisae is a community development expert and a certified M&E specialist with 15 years of experience in the conflict to peace setting in Africa and Middle East. She has served as diplomat, policy advisor and program/project manager for Japanese Government, United Nations and NGOs. Since 2001, she has designed, implemented and evaluated policy, program and project in the areas of vocational training and livelihood improvement, water and sanitation, community recovery, reconciliation and reintegration, security sector reform, local governance, capacity building and basic service delivery. Hisae is currently supporting the Government of Sudan as Technical Advisor in its effort to build the human resources development system in water supply. With MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, she has written extensively on the political economy of private and public sector initiatives by new development actors in resource-rich African countries in crisis.
Jake Stevens
Jake Stevens is a passionate lawyer, criminal justice capacity builder, and legal educator. He has focused on legal aid development, professional skills and university legal education, and community rule of law awareness; he has also engaged with prosecutors and police on behalf of UNODC to promote more effective investigations and prosecutorial decision-making. First in Nepal and then in Myanmar, he has provided comprehensive assistance to legal aid development, including justice system assessments, monitoring and evaluation and case management systems, practice manuals, and targeted training and coaching. Working both directly with university law departments and through a UNDP-sponsored community based “rule of law centres” project, Jake has designed interactive training modules, conducted training of trainers, and implemented comprehensive skills trainings and community-based human rights roundtables for law teachers, lawyer, government staff and civil society beneficiaries. As a prosecution expert for UNODC in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda Jake encouraged greater cooperation between police and prosecutors in counter-terrorism investigations, and supported the roll-out of national charging standards. In the United States he represented indigent criminal defendants and worked for systemic change at client-centred legal aid offices for over 15 years; he was a clinical law professor for three years; and he managed legal programs for LGBT victims of crime. Jake has degrees from Harvard University and New York University.
James McGovern
James McGovern is a lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in development, including law and justice sector development. James has worked in over 20 countries, including many Southeast Asian countries, where he has resided for extended periods (Thailand, Cambodia, Timor-Leste), working on development and rule of law/justice sector programs. James has also worked in Africa (the Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana) and across the Pacific Region as a Monitoring and Technical Advisor to a regional Judicial Strengthening Program. James has also worked in civil (Roman) law jurisdictions. He has designed, managed, monitored and evaluated a range of law and justice and governance programs for United Nations, the European Union, and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. James has good communication skills, and speaks a number of Asian languages fluently, and has overseen the preparation of comprehensive technical Design Documents.
Jan-Jilles van der Hoeven
Jan-Jilles (‘JJ’) has a MSc in Economy and is Transition International’s Conflict Transformation Desk Coordinator. With over 22 years of work experience in developing countries and 8 years of senior management experience in crisis countries, JJ is a specialist in matters relating to organisational development and programme design, management, review and troubleshooting. He has drafted various country programme strategies and development programmes, contributed to the design of various projects and organisations, led management and substantive reviews of programmes and organisations and drafted country programme strategies. He has managed very large portfolios of development programmes, with a focus on security sector reform, reintegration of former combatants, gender equality, peacebuilding, crisis governance and capacity development.
Jantine Konings Haley
Jantine is a program designer and grant writer. She started her writing career 21 years ago as an editor for African documentaries after which she moved to program monitoring, report writing and results based management for international NGOs. Jantine worked as an advisor on institutional funding for projects funded by the European Commission, UNHCR, UNICEF, OCHA, AUSAID and the Dutch government. She worked in Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan), the Middle East (Lebanon), Asia (Thailand, South Korea, Pakistan), Latin America and the Caribbean (Bolivia, Barbados) and the United States. Her track record includes grant writing of seventeen approved proposals representing a total budget of 23 million euro. Jantine has technical expertise in child rights, psychosocial support, education, community empowerment, gender/GBV and media. Trained by Management for Development Foundation (MDF) and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Jantine holds an MA degree in Conflict Studies & Human Rights from the Centre for Conflict Studies (CCS) and BA degrees in Journalism and Humanities.
Jean Marc Tafani
Accomplished professional with 26 years in the French Forces as Senior Officer and over 15 years of experience, World Bank consultant and UN DPKO staff, in policy advice and program leadership in various African countries. Jean-Marc is a leading specialist on Disarmament, Demobilization and social reinsertion of formers combatants, repatriation of foreign combatants and Community violence reduction programs. He has worked in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Belgium and in Central Africa Republic, Chad, Western Sahara, Ivory cost and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has designed, drafted and implemented sophisticated programs and led multidisciplinary teams of experts in sensitive environment. In addition to his military diplomas Jean-Marc holds a Management degree from the French University.
José-Mariá Taberné
José-Maria has a law degree, and a Masters in development administration and planning with 32 years’ experience in development operations and policy making, including systematic project and programme planning, management, monitoring and evaluation within multi/bilateral organisations, NSA, central and local governments and constituencies in transitional and developing countries. He has implemented activities on institutional strengthening, governance and security, reinsertion, infrastructure, production, microfinance, DDR, and post-conflict and reconstruction, including training of counterpart staff. José-Mariá has established financial management and contract administration and procurement practices, mostly in environments of grassroots, smallholder, migrant, refugee/displaced populations and demobilised combatants, all emphasising participatory, low-cost and labour-based methods, including strategies for the inclusion of marginalised groups in target communities. José María has lived for 18 years in different countries in Africa, South East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East working for various UN agencies, the European Commission and several international and humanitarian NGOs.
Jose Romero
Jose Romero is a capacity development, change manager, and learning advisor, who holds a Ph.D in sociology, and brings 25 years of experience in development work. He is a rigorous methodologist who applies the CD assessment methods as a cross/practice in the fields of public health, local sustainable development, justice and rule of law, and drug control. For the last 10 years he has advised UNDP, UNFPA, PAHO/WHO, and UNOCD. Previous to that, he worked 9 years for UNDP mainstreaming CD into the UNDP CO programming. He worked for 7 years for PAHO/WHO in HIV Aids prevention, education and behavioural change, specifically with NGOs. Jose is a creative systemic thinker, seasoned Theory U change management facilitator, and star curricular developer. He has published two books on the politics of HIV Aids in Mexico, and Logframe for NGOs, plus numerous articles on local sustainable development. He has covered UN missions in more than 25 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Keith Peterson
Keith Peterson is a senior attorney with extensive international experience. He served as an elected district attorney in Wisconsin and later as a private attorney defending criminal cases at the state and federal level. He worked as an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice in the Federated States of Micronesia, and successfully prosecuted a complex official corruption case against high level-public officials. He served as legal counsel to the public land authority in Koror State, Republic of Palau. He worked as a criminal law specialist for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Armenia, where he trained prosecutors, judges and public defenders. He worked as a justice advisor for the Criminal Justice Program Support project in Liberia, where he trained prosecutors and police and worked cooperatively with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and UNODC. He also conducted a consultancy in Guyana in which he made a detailed study of the drug prosecution law and enforcement practices for the Government of Guyana and the Inter-American Development Bank. In all of his international work he has advised high-level public officials and has been actively involved in anti-corruption and legal reform efforts. Mr. Peterson is currently serving as Security, Strategy and Training Consultant, for International Bridges to Justice, assisting with the organization’s work in Myanmar. He has been the principal draftsperson for funding proposals directed to USAID and the State Department and has provided consultancy services for EU-based organizations in the drafting of proposals for rule of law projects.
Kelsey Shanks
Dr. Kelsey Shanks is an Education Expert. Her doctoral research was funded by the ESRC and examined the relationship between education and conflict in the ethnically diverse Iraqi disputed territories. Her subsequent research and publications have correspondingly focused on the relationship between education, youth and conflict: with specific interest in community level conflict analysis, the politics of education and educations potential role in building peace. She has experience across the Middle East, North Africa and Somalia. To compliment her academic interests Kelsey have also worked as an Education Advisor to the United Nations, leading research projects for UNAMI Political Affairs and served as Peace-building Education advisor to UNICEF Iraq. In 2013, Kelsey held the position of Research Fellow at the University of York’s Postwar Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU), and is a Research Associate at Ulster University’s UNESCO Centre. She currently holds a full time position at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies where she looks at community dynamics and the IDP crisis in Iraq.
Khaled Ibrahim
Khaled has been leading UN teams in several United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in the field of DDR, Community Violence Reduction ( CVR) and Security Sector Reform . He brings expertise in supporting national governments to design and implement DDR programmes in challenging political, security and socio-economic environments. Given his background as a professional diplomat, Khaled was a pioneer in negotiating sensitive Security Council Mandates on DDR, CVR and Security Sector Reform with civilian and military actors. Khaled, is an advocate of national ownership in the area of DDR-CVR and SSR. Khaled designed and led large DDR-CVR multi-stakeholders and multi-year programmes, many of them considered innovation and are recognized as international best practice. He played a strategic role in providing political and security advice to UN senior leadership including UNCT and UN Humanitarian country teams on DDR, CVR and SSR and their impact on the overall mandated objectives of the UN particularly in Protection of Civilians, Restoration of State Authority and supporting the political process. He brings solid experience in advocacy and resource mobilization.
Koen Toonen
Koen Toonen, Team Leader, brings 22 years of working experience in project/programme management in international development cooperation, mostly in (post-)conflict situations and more than 10 years of experience with post-conflict issues and transitional governments. In addition, he brings an extensive track-record of training staff, and has been using adult learning principles and participatory training methodologies in his trainings. He has provided technical assistance, capacity building and training to governments (national and sub-national), UN and NGO staff; promoting management and leadership skills, vision development, good governance, accountability and transparency. He has also provided of trainings in project/programme/policy management tools and skills such as results based management, outcome mapping, Theory of Change, etc.. Most importantly, Koen Toonen has been a Civil Affairs Officer (CAO) in the UNTAET peacekeeping mission in East Timor and brings vast working experience in UN agencies, which provides him with great knowledge on the needs of Civil Affairs Officers regarding coaching, mentoring, and communication skills in post-conflict contexts. He completed a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Public Administration and is fluent in both French and English.
Lara Griffith
Lara Griffith is a team leader, speechwriter, governance adviser and senior consultant who has worked for multilateral and bilateral development agencies and international NGOs, including DFID, UNDP, EU, OSCE and Amnesty International. Her work focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating democratic governance, human rights, civil society and election support programmes. She has worked in countries including Libya, Afghanistan, Somalila (Somaliland) Nigeria, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Uganda (Northern Uganda), Malawi and also in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Lara also has experience of working as speechwriter for an international NGO addressing human rights, conflict and global governance issues. She also works directly with civil society organisations on strategic planning and programme design.
Larry Attree
Larry Attree is an independent, globally recognized expert on conflict, stability, people’s security, governance and rule of law issues. With over two decades’ experience, Larry has lived and worked for peace in the Balkans, South Asia, Africa and the Pacific with Saferworld, the UN, the OSCE and others. He is a former Team Leader – Asia, Senior Conflict Adviser and Head of Policy at Saferworld. His expertise covers peace, rights and security strategy and programme design, management, training and evaluation, conflict research and analysis, advice, advocacy and coalition building. He has influenced global agreements on peace, governance and human rights themes including the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, the Busan Partnership and the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. He has expert knowledge of community security/peacebuilding, governance, arms control, reintegration, human rights, rule of law, conflict analysis and sensitivity. As architect of Saferworld’s peacebuilding responses to crises and threats programme, Larry has authored/edited numerous studies on stabilisation, statebuilding, counter-terrorism, countering violent extremism, peace, human rights, rule of law, governance and development covering more than 20 contexts.
Leigh Toomey
Leigh Toomey specialises in the design, implementation and evaluation of justice reform and human rights projects, including the monitoring of places of detention and capacity building of police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and correctional officers. Her experience includes extensive field-based work in developing, conflict and post-conflict settings around the world, including in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. In August 2015, Leigh was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as a member of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and since April 2016 she has served as Vice-Chair on Follow-Up of the recommendations made by the Working Group in its opinions and during its country visits. Leigh is qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales and a Barrister in Australia. Leigh was also a Fulbright scholar at Yale Law School, where she obtained an LLM in International Human Rights Law.
Lina Marcela González Piñeros
Lina Marcela González Piñeros is an experienced gender and conflict analyst, program manager, and MEL expert. She has 15 years of experience managing and evaluating regional portfolios in the areas of peace and reconciliation, security and justice, stabilization and prevention of gender-based violence, in East Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Lina holds an MSc in Sustainable Development and an MA in Social Evaluation of Projects, and an accredited Conflict and Gender Advisor for UK-DFID. Lina led three regional conflict and stabilization portfolios in East Africa (Sudan and South Sudan) and South Asia (Pakistan and Afghanistan), and Latin America (Colombia and border areas with Ecuador and Peru), being responsible for the design and implementation of conflict and stabilisation, security sector reform (SSR), femicide and gender-based violence (GBV) and conflict resolution/peacebuilding programmes. Lina has also lead numerous annual reviews, impact evaluations and project completion reports for numerous partners, including UN agencies, international INGOs, and regional/national governmental institutions. She has particular expertise in qualitative research tools as outcome harvesting and mapping, qualitative police matrix and political economy analysis. She is also the author of multiple publications documenting human rights violations against refugees and internally displaced women and girls, and particularly advocacy leaders. Lina is a native Spanish speaker, and is fluent in Portuguese and English.
Luc Lafrenière
Luc is a motivated, energetic, and results-oriented senior international programme manager with over 15 years of working experience in the formulation, management and coordination of post-conflict, reintegration, and development programmes in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the South Pacific. He has solid diplomatic and negotiation skills and strong client-oriented focus acquired through extensive field experience in formulating and coordinating complex multi-partner, post-conflict and development programmes. His position as a senior advisor and DDR team leader at UNDP/ BCPR in Geneva has provided him with a unique set of skills and organisational understanding in the field of DDR and broader recovery programming.
Lucas van de Vondervoort
Lucas van de Vondervoort focuses on the nexus between politics and security, particularly in Africa. He has worked on security sector reform, civil-military relations, civil society, arms control, and arms export and has published several reports, in particular on South Sudan. Luuk managed projects in Mali and Sudan for the German Foreign Office and US Department of State and worked for local civil society organisations in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and in South Sudan. He was an advisor on arms control and community security to the Ministry of Interior in the years following independence of South Sudan. Luuk furthermore was the Arms Expert on the first United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan, reporting on arms flows, armed groups, command responsibility and natural resource use to the UN Security Council. Luuk holds a Master of Arts degree in political theory and a Master of Laws degree in international law.
Luisa Dietrich
Luisa Dietrich holds a doctorate degree in Political Science, a MA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, and a MSc in Comparative Politics in Latin America. Her strengths include gender-mainstreaming and targeted actions for gender justice in conflict to post-conflict transitions and humanitarian emergencies. She worked as Reparations and Reconciliation Specialist (IOM Colombia) where she provided high level technical advise to the National Commission for Reparations and Reconciliation, working with victim’s and women’s rights organisations to ensure their access to truth, justice and reparation. Another area of expertise relates to applied research and programmatic experience in gender-responsive disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatant’s (IOM, ICTJ and academic research). She has extensive experience in the development of knowledge products, such as the How To Guide to Gender Responsive DDR (IAWG/UNDP) and the Guidance Note to enhance Gender Responsive Mediation (OSCE). As humanitarian gender specialist (Oxfam, UNICEF, other INGOs) she deployed to more than eight humanitarian emergencies to provide technical advise to sectoral technical experts, developed gender components of humanitarian strategies, led comprehensive gender analysis for the South Sudan refugee response in Northern Uganda, the Ethiopia Drought response and for the humanitarian emergencies in Iraq. Furthermore, Luisa is a seasoned gender capacity builder and trainer in humanitarian and conflict contexts.
Mariam Kintsurashvili
Mariam Kintsurashvili is strategic communications expert in the area of security sector transformation, peacebuilding, DDR community reintegration, small arms control and local development with focus on such cross-cutting issues as gender, community security and access to justice. She brings in 14 years of experience as a journalist, UN DDR officer, knowledge management specialist and strategic communications adviser working in conflict affected regions in Georgia, Uganda, South Sudan and Ukraine. She provided consultative services to both national and international bodies, namely European Union, Governments of Canada, Georgia and Ukraine, United Nations and Mercy Corps. Throughout her career Mariam has played a key role in a number of initiatives such as Weapons marking for the Government of South Sudan, creation of the first Association of Women in Law Enforcement in Ukraine, digitalization of payment systems in Uganda and overall police reform in Ukraine.
Marije van Lidth de Jeude
Marije holds a Master in cultural anthropology and a bachelor in commercial economy. She has a professional record of more than fifteen years on social-economic development in rural and urban areas, in particular with multi- and bilateral donor-agencies, governmental institutions, producer cooperatives, small enterprises and other civil society stakeholders. She has worked for organisations like Oxfam-Novib, UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development. Her expertise was established as programme officer, during mixed qualitative/quantitative research and consultancy assignments related to all phases of the project-cycle, with a specific focus on formulations and evaluations. Thematic specialisations include gender, natural resources, socio-economic vulnerable groups (esp. migrants, indigenous people and youth), social and environmental performance of microfinance institutions, as well as financial, technical and business development services for small- and medium enterprises.
Mario Tavolaj
Mario has 45 years of professional experience of which the first 20 on rural development and infrastructural engineering in developing countries and the last 25 on migrations crisis programming in conflict and post conflict environments, first as Senior Staff and Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) and more recently as consultant. In this capacity, he had the opportunity to coordinate and manage programs in the field of : a) demobilization, reinsertion and reintegration of ex combatants (DDR), community violence reduction (CVR) and security sector reform (SSR); b) community stabilization, community based recovery, livelihood, and income generating initiative (IGAs); c) migrations management, return and reintegration/integration of IDPs, refugees and other populations of concern; c) assisted voluntary returns and reintegration of migrants (AVRR); d) technical cooperation on migrations management. Since his participation to the peacekeeping operation in Mozambique as IOM Project Manager of the combined projects of reintegration of ex-combatants, the Information and Referral Services (IRS) and Provincial Fund (PF), he established and supervised IOM activities in the context of the peacebuilding processes in Angola, Mali, Congo Republic, Guinee Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Centrafrican Republic (1993 -2017). He also contributed and coordinated training and technical workshops on DDR matters at the IOM HQs in Geneva and Mission in Colombia.
Micha Wiebusch
Micha Wiebusch is an international lawyer with over eight years of experience in international, constitutional, human rights law and politics in Africa. He is specialised in constitution building processes, post-conflict reconstruction and development, rule of law programmes and elections. He has a proven track record with the African Union (AU), including the AU Commission, particularly the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department of Political Affairs with inside knowledge of the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). He has extensive experience in facilitating trainings, monitoring and evaluation, capacity development, team management, project development and design, research and publications. He has done consultancy work for the UN, AU, European Union and International IDEA. He has worked in over seventeen countries in Africa, Europe and Latin America. He holds advanced degrees in law and political science and is able to communicate clearly and effectively in several languages, including French and English.
Nasrin Khan
Nasrin is a lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in justice and security sector reform, half of which has been in post conflict and fragile states. Her specialisms include evaluation, M&E, gender and non-discrimination, training, and research and analysis. Having managed and designed a number of UNDP programs in Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Sierra-Leone and Ukraine, she has in-depth knowledge of UNDP’s M&E frameworks, and Results Based Reporting system. She has undertaken evaluation and assessments at country and regional level, and is fully familiar with the UN Rule of Law and Stabilisation architecture. At the same time, with 10 years’ experience as a prosecutor and legal adviser in the UK government she has a deep understanding of criminal justice and security sector reform. Her approach is rooted in conflict-sensitive analysis and applies a human-rights based approach. She has delivered for donors and development partners in Timor-Leste, Bangladesh, Ukraine, UK, Palestine, Poland, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
Nat Colletta
Nat is an international expert on conflict, peace building and development. He was founding manager of the World Bank’s Post Conflict Unit where he played a key role in pioneering and managing the Bank’s policy toward assistance in war to peace transitions. He has worked extensively on the security sector including ceasefire mediation, DDR and SSR in a number of countries. He was the director of the Content and Methods Advisory Group for the First International Congress on DDR as well as the Director of the Panel on Reintegration for the Swedish Initiative on DDR. He is currently advising several International Agencies and Governments (Indonesia and the Philippines, among others) on conflict prevention and post conflict reconstruction. He has an extensive publication list (see CV). He was a Visiting Professor of International Relations and is currently teaching in the International Studies Program.
Oscar Schiappa-Pietra
Oscar currently works as a consultant for the World Bank’s Mining, Petroleum and Energy Unit, acts as Representative of The Vine Trust, and is CEO of AgroAndino SRL. He also teaches Crisis Management at ESAN University in Lima, as well as International Relations and Geopolitics of Natural Resources at the Center of National Studies (CAEN). He has previously served as a Senior Advisor to several Peruvian public institutions, including the Office of the formerly President-Elected Mr. Ollanta Humala, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and acted as Executive Director of the Peruvian Agency for Development Aid. Furthermore, he worked as a Program Manager with the UNDP in Papua New Guinea, and served as International Alert’s Latin America Representative. He was also a Legal Officer at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Professor of International and Comparative Law at the Washington College of Law (American University), and labour union leader at the Peru’s Banking Employees’ Federation. He is listed as Arbiter in the rolls of the American-Peruvian Chamber of Commerce, the Lima Chamber of Commerce and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Oscar holds Master’s degrees in International and Comparative Law, and Public Administration, as well as a M.Sc. in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries and a LL.M. in International Economic Law.
Pall Davidsson
Pall is an expert in peacebulding and conflict resolution through security and justice reform, with over a decade of international experience in the field. Recently he led the effort of eleven UN agencies, including the peacekeeping mission, in developing a Joint United Nations Programme to move Darfur from protracted crisis to development through a comprehensive support to the rule of law. Pall has also managed major capacity building programmes for justice and security institutions in Africa and Eastern Europe where he has lived and worked. Pall has provided consultancy services to UNDP, UN Global Focal Point for Police, Justice and Corrections and the World Bank. Pall is a seasoned communicator frequently called upon to manage workshops and deliver training in various fora on human rights, the rule of law and peacebuilding. He is a regular lecturer at the Swedish Armed Forces International Centre and Fordham School of Law in New York. Pall has a Masters Degree in Law from Columbia University in New York.
Raed Rafei
Raed Rafei is a multimedia journalist, media trainer and filmmaker. He has over ten years of experience reporting on international topics for various media. He holds a Masters in Journalism from the City University of New York, which he completed as a Fulbright scholar. Born and raised in Tripoli, Lebanon, at the height of his country’s civil war, Rafei regularly works on independent video reports and web documentaries focused on human-interest stories from the region. As a reporter, Rafei has covered, since 2004, political, social and economic issues related to Lebanon and the Middle East for local and international newspapers and websites such as the Los Angeles Times, The Daily Star, Al-Ahram Weekly and Forbes Arabia. Currently, Rafei is working as a freelance producer for international television stations such as CNN and as a media and communication consultant. He is also making his second feature documentary on the layered relations between Lebanon and the West. His first documentary, 74 (The Reconstitution of a Struggle), was screened in international festivals and received many awards.
Rob Watson
Rob Watson has worked for over three decades in the fields of human rights/access to justice, democratic governance and conflict management as a trainer, director and freelance expert. Rob has been consulting for the EU, UN, Sida, Danida, Norad, Dutch MFA and various Scandinavian and Dutch institutions. In 1995, he established Frontier Consulting serving governments, donors, international agencies and civil society in Asia, Africa and Europe. For two years he worked as Regional Peacebuilding Advisor at CRS in Indonesia and other countries of South East Asia. In 2006 he worked for a year in Finland during the EU Presidency as Director of the Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management programme of the Crisis Management Initiative, of previous President Artisaari of Finland. Mr Watson regularly teaches courses on Conflict Analysis for Prevention and Peace building at the UN System Staff Collage in Torino, Italy and with the United Nations and other organisations both in New York and in the field.
Saleh Bala
Saleh Bala; CEO of White Ink Consult, a Abuja-Nigeria based defense and security, strategic communication and training consultancy, is a retired Brigadier General of the Nigerian Army. He holds two Masters degrees in International Peace Studies (University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica) and National Security Strategy (National Defense University, Washington DC). Bala served as a UN peacekeeper at operational and policy levels in Angola and Cote d’Ivoire. He has also been a trainer from tactical to strategic military educational levels at home and abroad. His major area of specialization is national security strategy concept formulation and development, emphasizing on sustainable security governance architecture design and management. Bala’s further areas of work include peace building, with focus on Preventing and Counter Violent Extremism (P/CVE) and other non-kinetic approach strategy delivery. His experience in complex military operations, following his service in UN peacekeeping abroad and counterinsurgency operations in Nigeria, provides him with a rich background in Security Sector Reform (SSR), Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), post-conflict law enforcement and transitional justice, management and resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees, among other strengths.
Sami Faltas
Sami has a broad and deep understanding of the challenges of building peace after war. These include dismantling the structures of war (Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration), controlling the tools of violence, combating gendered forms of violence, dealing with the legacy of conflict and hatred (e.g. by Transitional Justice), and improving the delivery of security and justice services (Security Sector Reform). Working in several languages, he designs and delivers training courses for practitioners around the world. Beside this, he advises governments, international organisations and NGOs, and publishes articles and reports. Finally, he has a private life. For detailed information, see his LinkedIn page.
Shree Nadarajah
Shree Nadarajah, a child protection specialist, has more than a decade of experience working on the children and armed conflict and conflict-related sexual violence agendas of the United Nations. She has worked extensively on developing policies and guidance on child protection, including leading the production of the UN Secretary-General’s annual reports on children and armed conflict and sexual violence in conflict that is deliberated by the Security Council while working at the UN Offices of the Secretary-General’s Special Representatives on Children and Armed Conflict; and Sexual Violence in Conflict, respectively. She has worked closely with Member States to strengthen UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions that supports the advancement of these global agendas. She has undertaken missions to several conflict settings such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar and recently completed three years in Mindanao with UNICEF where she directly implemented programmes for the protection of children in armed conflict, successfully supporting the release of 1,829 children from an armed group and resulted in their removal from the UN name and shame list for child recruitment. Shree is currently conducting pre-deployment trainings on child protection for national armed forces from the Southeast Asia region that will be deployed as future UN Peacekeepers. Shree holds Masters degrees in international management and Asian Studies with a focus on children’s rights.
Tammy Michele Washington
Tammy Michele Washington is a lawyer with over 13 years of experience supporting institution building processes in fragile countries. She offers broad experience of South Sudan having worked there for the UNDP as a Referendum Advisor, Senior Anti-Corruption Consultant and Chief Technical Advisor on Institutional Support. Ms. Washington is familiar with the country as well as the key players and institutions relevant to this programme. Ms. Washington has also worked in senior capacity for the UNDP in Angola, Tanzania, Liberia, South Africa, Kenya and Somaliland where she engaged extensively with both governmental and non-state actors. Through her career, Ms. Washington has provided policy and technical advice, researched and drafted official papers, developed and implemented significant programmes on a wide range of institution building efforts, including the rule of law, security sector reform, gender and anti-corruption.
Teun Voeten
Teun studied cultural anthropology and philosophy in the Netherlands. He is an award winning journalist and photographer who covered the conflicts in Bosnia, Colombia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, Honduras, DR Congo, North Korea, Mexico, Libya and Syria. His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, The New Yorker and National Geographic. He also works for organisations as the ICRC, UNHCR, Doctors without Borders and Human Rights Watch. In 1996, he published ‘Tunnel People’, an account of an underground homeless community in New York. His first photo book ‘A Ticket To’ came out in 1999. ‘How de Body? Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone’, was published in 2000 and describes a journey which nearly ended in disaster when he was hunted down by childsoldiers intent on killing him. In addition, Teun makes documentaries and contributed to the award winning ‘Restrepo’. In 2011, he organised the exhibition “Generation 9/11: Ten Years War Photography” for GEMAK in The Hague. Between 2009 and 2012, Teun covered the drug war in Mexico, resulting in his photo book ‘Narco Estado: Drug Violence in Mexico.’ Currently, he is working on a PhD dissertation on extreme violence in warfare. Furthermore, Teun often lectures at cultural and educational institutions.
For usage of his images, assignments and other inquiries, please visit www.teunvoeten.com.
Thomas Winderl
Thomas Winderl is a senior advisor for monitoring and evaluation. He has worked for sixteen years with multilateral and bilateral organizations in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Thomas was the M&E advisor of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Programme in Afghanistan. More recently, he has drafted DPKO’s Standard Operating Procedure for M&E in DDR, UNDP’s How To Guide on Monitoring and Evaluation in DDR Programmes, and the How to Guide: Gender-Responsive Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of the Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR (IAWG). Thomas has extensive expertise in the design and implementation of effective result-based monitoring systems for peace-building and development interventions and in training and capacity-building. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Vienna and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Liverpool.”
Vanessa Farr
Vanessa is a senior expert on gendered impacts of conflict, women in peace-building and women in governance in conflict and post-conflict settings, specialising in Africa and the Middle East. She was lead editor and senior gender advisor on the creation of the Integrated DDR Standards (IDDRS), first published in 2006. She was the first global Gender and Conflict Advisor at UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention (2007-08) and then Social Development and Gender Advisor at UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP; 2008-2012). Her period of service with the UN coincided with extensive efforts to implement UN Reform through better coordinated responses to crisis (both environmental and conflict-related). She has published widely on issues related to gender and armed conflict, including on Palestinian women and the peace process and Libyan women and the revolution. She is the co-editor of two books: Back to the Roots: Security Sector Reform and Development (Münster: LIT, 2012) and Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impacts of Small Arms and Light Weapons (UNU Press, 2009). Vanessa has been Lead Researcher on the WILPF MENA 1325 project since its inception in 2012 and holds a PhD from the School of Women’s Studies at York University, Toronto.
Vanessa Grée
Vanessa Grée is an expert in transitional justice with ten years of experience in complex international criminal proceedings at the United Nations (UN-ICTY) and a solid knowledge of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. She was rostered by Justice Rapid Response as a war crimes investigations expert and was deployed at the International Criminal Court to provide assistance on a situation. Trained in civil law and common law and having worked in various legal systems, she is very adaptable and has experience providing legal advice to senior officials, drafting amendments to rules of procedure and evidence, and providing recommendations on amendments to legislation in conformity with international standards. Vanessa’s other areas of expertise include discrimination, refugee rights, children’s rights, and sexual and gender-based violence. Her interdisciplinary background in law, political science and cultural anthropology has been an asset when providing assistance to non-profit organizations in various countries. She was involved in strategic litigation activities and in a fact-finding mission (Eastern Europe). She has additional experience conducting investigative interviews and assisting clients and/or counsels bringing claims before national human rights institutions or regional human rights mechanisms. She also has experience providing capacity-building assistance in the context of a large-scale project to support countries with their advocacy efforts. She also delivered presentations and trainings to a wide range of audiences on procedural and substantial legal issues. Vanessa has field experience in Yemen, Lebanon, and Ukraine. She is fluent in French and English and has basic knowledge of Dutch.
Venetia Paiz-Merino
Venetia has eleven years of accumulated expertise in peacebuilding, particularly the promotion of human rights, political analysis, protection of civilians and DDR, both with the UN and NGOs. Deeply committed to enhancing human rights and development through business, on behalf of the British Embassy in Bogota, she recently drafted a set of human rights commitments for British companies in Colombia, upon which Embassy support will become contingent. Currently she helps manage a public-private development fund for the British Government in Colombia, as well as a small social enterprise. Venetia has extensive field experience in DRC, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Haiti and Colombia, as well as policy experience at UN headquarters in New York. She is an excellent communicator and has provided numerous trainings, across the UN and to the Swedish Folke Bernadotte Academy. She holds an MSc from LSE in Human Rights and is currently pursuing an MBA, specialising in business and human rights. Apart from her native English, Venetia competently works in French and Spanish.
Waheed Ahmad
Waheed Ahmad, as a human rights lawyer, has experience working with multi-stakeholder on issues concerning women and minority rights. As a Training Officer in Sanjog, Waheed designed child/human rights programmes and projects related to capacity building and the promotion and protection of child rights, as well as projects/programmes focused on women, Person with disabilities and minorities in Pakistan. Waheed continues taking on cases related to discrimination, stigmatization, and social/professional injustices with vulnerable people and groups (minorities). Waheed worked substantially on awareness-raising and advocacy which is of utmost importance in his community. He also worked as a Project Lawyer for the British Pakistan Law Council, Project Advocate for the Foundation Sanjog and some other Child Related Organisation. In addition, he also provided free Legal Aid to children in detention, conducted jail visits, juveniles’ family Coordination, juvenile’s Counseling, and representing children in court. Furthermore, by representing clients in courts, Waheed obtained experience in legal and judicial processes, alternative dispute resolution and paralegal mechanisms, law enforcement including community policing, criminal justice including counter-terrorism, human rights and institutional accountability.
Wayne Bleier
Wayne Bleier is a child protection and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) specialist, bringing 26 years of international programming experience in conflict and post conflict settings throughout the Balkans, Africa, and Asia. Wayne has coordinated large DDR programmes for children Liberia, DRC, and Uganda while working for Child Fund International, IRC, and War Child UK as well as advising on reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups (CAAFAG) at ILO, Chatham House, and Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Wayne is known for providing capacity development support to national and international aid workers in Child Protection in Emergencies, Psychological First Aid, community-based protection and MHPSS. Wayne has also designed and coordinated cross-border family tracing programmes in Congo and Timor L’este, where children were held for political purposes. He has worked for several INGOs and UNICEF. Prior to working overseas Wayne worked as a child and family therapist and clinical supervisor at a community mental health centre in the USA.
Yoko Fujimura
Yoko Fujimura has more than twelve years of field experience in the emergency, post-conflict recovery and migration management in Asia and Africa with extensive focus on socio-economic reintegration of conflict affected populations and displaced populations. Her passion lays on linking small to medium entrepreneurship with peacebuilding and promotion of environmentally friendly and sustainable business plans in conflict affected areas. Yoko also has proven experience in responding to large-scale displacement by cluster coordination, data collection and humanitarian responses from Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She speaks 5 languages fluently.