September 2002 – present
SAHAN research & advice bureau
Founding director of SAHAN research & advice bureau. SAHAN aims at building bridges in research for development with the objectives to foster research which responds to the societal needs in the areas of development cooperation, conflict and post-conflict- development, migration and Diaspora, empowering civil society and capacity building regarding Africa. SAHAN conducts policy oriented research and also fact finding missions abroad, mainly in Africa, undertakes evaluation and monitoring activities, provides training and offers advisory services on integration and multi-cultural issues.
Current activities
- Consultant for TMF Evaluation Assignment on Peace Building in Africa Commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Coordinating and editing of the book ‘Shaping a Better Africa: The Way Forward’, commissioned by the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and financially supported by the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) and ICCO. The book will be published in 2006.
- Organising in collaboration with The Network University a series of Trust Building workshops and ‘Training for Conflict Transformation Skills’ for the African diaspora organisations in the Netherlands.
Previous activities
- Policy Research on Reversing the Brain Drain in Africa for the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC). Policy report is published in September 2005.
- Keynote speaker on an International Symposium on Pan-Africanism and the African Diaspora: Building Brides for Development, held at the University of Lagos in Nigeria from 1-5 August 2005. The title of the speech was: “Mobilising African Diaspora for the Shaping of a Better Africa”.
- Policy Research on Mobilising African Diaspora for the Promotion for Peace in Africa for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Policy report is published in May 2005.
- Consultant for International IDEA’s Democracy Building and Conflict Management Unit. Policy report is published in June 2005.
- UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention & Recovery, Transition Recovery Unit Roster of Consultants
- Lead researcher of a feasibility study on the Critical Role of the Diasporas in Conflicts in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa regions. SAHAN undertook this policy oriented study in collaboration with The Network University in Amsterdam. This collaboration efforts resulted in a feasibility study document on Mobilising African Diaspora for the Promotion of Peace in Africa, published in October 2004
- Lead project advisor and consultant for Inter-Church Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO) on Diaspora and the peace process in the Sudan. This resulted in a policy report on Building a Peaceful and Democratic Sudan: Sudanese Diaspora Perspectives’ that ICCO handed over to Jan Pronk, the UN special representative for Sudan. The report compiles the views and insights articulated by the Sudanese Diaspora as a contribution to the formulation of the Netherlands government policy positions and strategies towards the peace initiative in the Sudan.
- Lead programme advisor for NCDO on ‘Shaping a New Africa’, organising a series of public debates in cooperation with Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) in De Balie in Amsterdam, covering issues such as NEPAD, Good Governance, Civil Society, Partnership, Diaspora and Migration, Development Cooperation, etc. The proceedings of the discussions we organised in 2002 and 2003 will be handed over to Agnes van Ardenne, Minister for the Development Cooperation at the conference on Africa that will be held on 26 May, 2004.
- Lead researcher and consultant for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on institutional capacity building in Africa. This has resulted in a strategic paper on ‘Institutional and Capacity Enhancement: An African Perspective’ that has been distributed to the Netherlands embassies in the Great Lakes Region, published in April 2003
- Lead researcher and consultant for UNHCR on Somalia Project
- Lead programme advisor for NCDO on ‘Shaping a New Africa’, organising a series of public debates in cooperation with Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) in De Balie in Amsterdam, covering issues such as NEPAD, Good Governance, Civil Society, Partnership, Diaspora and Migration, Development Cooperation, etc.
- Lead researcher for Oxfam Netherlands /NOVIB on food security issues in the Horn of Africa. This has resulted in a report (published in September 2003) aimed to contribute to the efforts of developing a well regulated livestock trade with long-term quality assurance in Somaliland, Puntland and Somali Regional State of Ethiopia
- Lead researcher and consultant for AfroNeth on the role of African Diaspora in relation to development in Africa. This has resulted a policy report on ‘African Diaspora in the Netherlands and Development of Africa
- Consultant training for Royal Tropical Institute (politics and culture about Somalia)
- Consultant training for Training Institute Kontakt der Kontinenten (politics and culture about Somalia)
Since 1996 – present
- Served regularly as an election observer on behalf of the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), Organisations for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (CE) in countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Serbia, East –Timor among others. In some of these countries such as Kosovo and East-Timor, I served as a team leaders for several months in situations where the conditions were stressful. The main task of my missions there was to stimulate the development of community-based institutional mechanisms that facilitate capacities for local peace and sustainable democratic institutions in these countries.
1994-2002
Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Lectured graduate students courses on the nature and dynamics of the new intra-state conflicts in Africa in the post-Cold War era and the patterns and strategies of external intervention
Arranged African scholars to participate in the yearly lecture series organised by the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam
Acted as a co-ordinator of the African Political Economy with a research group in the Research Centre for International Political Economy (RECIPE), University of Amsterdam (until 1998)
1992-present
Free-lance journalist for various international magazines and newspapers
Published academic and journalistic articles on conflict management and prevention, empowering grassroots civil associations, democratic governance, ethnic politics and the problematic of state fragmentation in the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia.
From 1992 -1998 I have regularly published in West Africa Magazine, printed in London.