Today marks the 111th International Women’s Day, a testament to the many decades that women and their allies have dedicated to creating a more equal world. Today we commemorate how far we have come to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplaces and our communities, and look ahead to how far we still must go.…
Olga Ponamarova (she/her/hers) is a gender and social inclusion specialist with more than 10 years of experience in project management working with and within civil society organizations and humanitarian response and development projects in Ukraine. Olga has worked for the USAID-funded Democratic Governance East project as a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) specialist contributing to…
Countries already suffering from conflict and instability are often also on the frontlines of climate change. In Mali, rainfall has decreased by about 30% in the last 40 years, a severe crisis in a country where 80% of people depend on rain-fed agriculture. In Yemen, climate change has increased the country’s vulnerability to droughts and floods, deepening acute…
Cross-border “cluster” regions in the Horn of Africa have historically suffered from underinvestment and, as a result, face related challenges. Communities living in the cross-border towns of Karamoja, Moyale, and Mandera who move across Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Somalia’s borders face numerous shocks and stressors. These include ethnic conflict, drought, flooding, pest infestations,…
Simon Vickers is an experienced Project Director who has specialized in designing and managing programs in fragile and conflict-affected states for FCDO, UN, EU, Canadian and Dutch donors. He has experience in conflict management, peacebuilding, security and justice sector reform, local governance, research, CVE and stabilization; mostly across the MENA region and Sahel. Simon joined…
Mette Bastholm Jensen has spent more than a decade working on and in fragile and conflict-affected environments. Combining a research background with extensive field and government experience, she has spent much of her career conducting and translating analysis into actionable advice, particularly in stabilization contexts. Prior to joining Chemonics, Mette served most recently as an…
Charlie de Rivaz is an expert on transnational organized crime and conflict. He is currently the Research Fund and Uptake Director on the UK aid-funded Cross-Border Conflict, Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research program, the UK government’s largest-ever conflict research program. Before joining Chemonics, Charlie was a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute…
Founded in 1975, Chemonics is one of the world’s leading partners in international development across various sectors, working in more than 76 countries today. Present in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since 1979, Chemonics has managed a portfolio of more than 300 projects across various sectors. Our current LAC portfolio contains 20 projects spanning…
Sarah Ahmed is a development professional with 17 years of experience in U.S. government-funded projects in democracy and governance, and peace, stability, and transition across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. As senior vice president of Talent, Learning, and Development, she is responsible for creating efficiencies through improved processes and guidance in the…
Chemonics’ recently published toolkit offers peacebuilders a practical guide to applying “Elite Bargains and Political Deals” (EBPD) theory to their activities. Through her work delivering stabilization programming in Mali, Jaclyn Grace co-authored the toolkit. She explains how EBPD theory helps development practitioners see localized conflicts in a new light. 1. What is Elite Bargains and Political Deals…