Staff

Camiel Aalberts
Advisor on effective food safety controls in international supply chains: to reduce technical trade barriers, to contribute to sustainable development, and to protect public health.

• Development of capacity building programmes
• Management of capacity building projects
• Facilitation of change processes
  

Sean Asiimwe 
Trainee from the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) with a critical agrarian and environmental studies background guided by an interdisciplinary approach linking political economy, sociology and political ecology. 

• Power Relations in Development and Change Process
• Development Policy (in agriculture and environment - Uganda/Sub Saharan Africa)
• Global North-South Linkages
• Agricultural and Rural Development Innovation Processes
  

Paula Bilinsky
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. She focuses on the improvement of the quality and usefulness of evaluation as it contributes to sustainable development. Skilled at building monitoring and evaluation systems at the project and government level, specially for the support of process and impact learning.

• Utilization focused evaluation
• Multi-method approaches
• Capacity building in evaluation at the individual and institutional level
  

Arend Jan van Bodegom 
Governance of ecosystems expert, whose focus is on project and programme management that addresses natural resource governance issues, such as sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation and policy development.

• Policy advice on biodiversity, NRM, governance and accountability
• Process facilitation to formulate and execute policies with stakeholder involvement
• Forest and climate issues: mitigation (REDD) and adaptation strategies
• Evaluation of policies and practice in the NRM sector
  

Fannie de Boer
Senior food and nutrition expert who enjoys helping people to come together and find new ways to overcome structural problems. She is involved in a wide range of training activities, formal and non-formal, and consultancies. Current focus is rights-based approaches for food and nutrition security.

• Training in participatory approaches and rapid assessment techniques
• Sustainable livelihood assessment
• Monitoring and evaluation for impact on food and nutrition security

Gareth Borman
A young professional from Johannesburg, South Africa joining CDI to assist on projects relating to Agrobiodiversity and Genetic Resources within the Adaptive Agriculture programme. His research background and experience spans both the rural development and natural resource potentials of agro-forestry systems and more natural ecosystems.

Herman Brouwer
Development policy and institutional change specialist, focusing on capacity development, multi-stakeholder processes, and organisational learning. Fascinated by innovation and changes initiated by ordinary people. A connector with broad curiosity, skilled in facilitation, coaching and analysis.

• Facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes
• Roles and capacities of civil society organisations in social change
• Rights-based approaches to development
  

Jan Brouwers
Advisor on multi-stakeholder change processes and social learning, combined with participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation. Engaged with these practice areas in French speaking Africa, Latin America, East and Southern Africa, and South Asia. Programmatic and project evaluations.

• Development of capacity building programmes
• Evaluations
• Facilitation of change processes
  

Karen Buchanan 
Programme Development Manager. A spatial planner and political ecologist with a focus on linkages between environment, resources, and conflict and reconstruction. Specialises in the impact of extractive industries on the environment, poverty and environmental rights and security, particularly in (post) conflict zones in developing countries.

Caroline Desalos
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. French who lived and worked in Spanish, English and French speaking countries. She wants to assist organizations in assessing the performance of their projects according to international standards, and partners in considering the effects of their interventions in the design of future actions. She believes that the views of all stakeholders affected by an intervention matter and that everybody is knowledgeable.

• Review and set up of M&E systems
• Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation
• Design and manage agriculture, integrated water resources management, food security and rehabilitation projects

• Policy support and advisory services
• Design and facilitation of capacity development and organizational change processes
• Management and coordination of large scale projects

Ingrid Gevers
Specialises in capacity development and institutional change processes in the integrated management of aquatic resources. A team player, who motivates colleagues and instigates new initiatives. Strong organisational skills and practised in mobilising manpower and resources.

• Wetlands and fisheries governance, climate change
• Multi-stakeholder and interactive planning processes
• Policy support and advisory services
• Training of trainers and facilitation of learning

Alberto Giani 
Specialist Animal Production System and Health. He is a veterinarian with long lasting experience in Europe and developing countries as private vet and project manager in rural livelihood programmes His areas of expertise also include Organic Agriculture and Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UPA).

• Facilitation of livestock sector development processes
• Urban/Peri-Urban/Rural dynamics
• Sustainable agri-food systems
  

Annemarie Groot Kormelinck
Junior development sociologist with a broad interest in the areas of rural economic development, value chain analyses, and empowerment of farmers and their organizations. Other areas of interest are facilitation of institutional change, M&E, economic field experiments and linking research to day-to-day development realities.

• Approaches, tools, and methods for improving the performance of producers’ organizations 
• Farmer entrepreneurship, value chain approaches, gender in value chains
• Combining different research methods and applying these to practical realities. 
  

Peter van der Heijden
Designs and coordinates projects and training courses on aquatic resource management and aquaculture.

• Participatory fisheries management
• Sustainable and integrated aquaculture
• Training and extension
  

Jan Helder
Market economist specialising in capacity development and institutional change. Focuses on innovative approaches to pro-poor, market-led local economic development, covering sustainable market development, chain governance, sustainable livelihoods and program development.

• Value chain development in participatory settings
• Economics of poverty and livelihoods
• Knowledge broker: from research to application

Wouter Leen Hijweege
Deputy Director of CDI. Capacity building and institutional change specialist whose focus is on project and programme management, addressing governance issues. Natural resources management covering sustainable land use methods, community based resource management, policy development and participatory extension.

• Strategic and business plan development
• Action learning for innovation processes
• Management and coordination of multi-cultural teams

• Design and facilitation of multi-stakeholder and action learning processes
• Organisational and institutional change processes
• Design and implementation of programme evaluations
• Action-research on governance and accountability

Wijnand Klaver
Capacity building and institutional change specialist whose focus is on project and programme management, addressing food and nutrition security. Planning, monitoring and evaluation of policies and participatory approaches to promote household food security, food consumption and nutritional status.

• Food and nutrition security
• Action learning
• Facilitation of multi-sector teams

Irene Koomen
Advisor on capacity building and institutional change in food safety, plant health and integrated pest management. Focus on sustainable development and overcoming technical barriers to trade.

• Development of capacity building programmes
• Development of teaching and training programmes
• Policy advice

• Training of trainers and conflict management
• Natura 2000, EU WFD and agri-environment programmes
• Member of Ramsar´s CEPA Oversight Panel

Cecile Kusters
Specialist in managing for impact. Within this she focuses on participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation, multi-stakeholder processes and social change. Particular interest in M&E system development and being strategic in the face of complexity.

• Capacity development in managing for impact
• Utilisation-focused and consequence aware evaluation
• Management and coordination of large projects
• Most significant change technique and participatory video
• Facilitating writeshops

• systems approach to animal production
• integrated programme development
• capacity development at multiple levels

Ruud Ludemann
Expert in rural extension with a focus on human resource development and institutional strengthening for participatory resource management. Specialises in reinforcing motivation to learn-by-doing thereby creating synergy between socio-economic, institutional and technological aspects of development.

• Extension advisory services for agricultural and rural development
• Capacity building and human resource development
• Organisational change and institutional strengthening

• Sustainable livestock production
• Capacity development for control of emerging livestock diseases
• Project management and coordination

Hans Nijhoff
Economist who builds and coordinates market-driven partnership initiatives for agricultural development. His focus is on helping to build business models and market mechanisms that are embedded through institutional processes, rather than on quick results. Uses pragmatic communication and mediation skills towards stakeholders from all sectors.

• Joint analysis & planning
• Innovative institutional arrangements
• Multi-stakeholder processes

Cora van Oosten
Project leader/advisor natural resources management. Human geographer, with a focus on regional development, spatial planning and landscape approaches. Specialises in participatory planning and governance at landscape level.

• Project management
• Participatory research, planning and design
• Teaching, training, capacity development
• Action learning and learning networks

Floor Peters
Development economist working for the Africa Agribusiness Academy and other sector-specific projects related to agribusiness and entrepreneurship. She focuses on private sector development mainly in East-Africa.

• Agribusiness development in East-Africa
• Innovative entrepreneurship
• Action research and (online) learning networks
• Value chain analysis
  

Hanneke Peters 

Finance Department

Nina de Roo
Junior employee with a background in human geography and international development studies. She focuses on local economic development in rural areas through a multi-stakeholder approach, agri-business cluster development, and empowerment of farmers and their organisations. Other areas of interest are facilitation of institutional change and social learning.

• Livelihood strategies and agri-business clusters in Africa
• Strengthening producers’ organisations in local economic development
• Facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes and social learning
  

Nico Rozemeijer
Senior advisor in collaborative natural resources management (NRM), regional planning and rural development. Focuses on governance, policy development and organisational development. Lead facilitator for training courses on adaptive management of and competing claims on natural resources.

• Policy/strategy analysis and development at the interface of NRM and rural development
• Design and implementation of evaluation approaches
• Embedding integrated NRM in learning programmes and organisational development

Mirjam Schaap
Knowledge management and mediated learning specialist. Her focus is on connecting people, knowledge sharing, and facilitating learning by making use of media, ICT and web tools. Fascinated by the use of web 2.0 tools for learning and social change.

• video for development and participatory video
• facilitation of learning networks and communities of practice
• design and facilitation of web supported learning

Ted Schrader
Advisor on farmer empowerment, rural innovation and agribusiness development. He focuses on the specific interfaces that farmers have with other actors, building farmers’ capacity to navigate the business world.

• Approaches, tools and training for improving performance of producers' organizations
• Agribusiness cluster development with focus on building networks of local economic actors
• Action-research that supports processes of rural economic change

• Capacity development and institutional strengthening in CEE
• Approaches to implementing ecological networks, e.g. Natura 2000
• Practices for integrated land use planning and nature conservation
• Good governance, stakeholder involvement, participatory planning in environmental projects

• Development and implementation of capacity building programs and consulting assignments
• Facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes in value chains
• Change management with individuals, organisations and institutions

Petra Spliethoff
Senior fisheries and wetland management expert. Her focus is on institutional capacity building, knowledge management and policy coherence to support aquatic resource governance.

• Participatory planning, management, monitoring and evaluation
• Facilitating multi-stakeholder processes
• Facilitating capacity building and institutional change strategies

Abishkar Subedi 
Specialist on genetic resources and seed systems. His areas of expertise on developing innovative participatory approaches to manage agriculture biodiversity, wetland and forest genetic resources for community livelihood, sustainable food security and building resilience. Active in local to global consortia to explore practical opportunities where complex policies process translated into practice.

• Community biodiversity management and resilience
• Robust and dynamic seed systems development
• Evolving policy regimes on genetic resources, seed and climate change
  

• Participatory and multi-stakeholder approaches
• Curriculum design and review
• Workshop facilitation

Karèn Verhoosel
Capacity development and institutional change specialist whose focus is on training and facilitation of multi stakeholder processes, social learning, social change, innovation and organisational development processes.

• Multi-stakeholder processes and social learning
• Facilitation of change processes
• Organisational development and change

• Sustainable chain development
• Curriculum development
• Systems approach to animal production

Simone van Vugt
Innovation & Change programme leader. Capacity building and development and institutional change specialist. Her focus is on facilitating multi-stakeholder processes and monitoring & evaluation for learning. She also implements organisational and institutional development processes and coaches the stakeholders involved.

• Facilitating multi-stakeholder processes
• Participatory monitoring & evaluation for learning and change
• Action learning for innovation processes
• Coaching for organisational development processes

Siert Wiersema
Senior advisor on supply chain development in horticulture and coordinator of International Potato Course. Specialises on project and programme development in the horticultural value chain, focusing on issues related to sustainability and market orientation.

• Market-oriented sustainable agriculture
• Seed supply systems
• Horticultural development including potatoes

Seerp Wigboldus
Senior advisor on capacities for change, focusing on innovation processes and the quest for being strategic in complex situations. He specialises in strengthening dynamic capabilities of stakeholders engaged in the process of managing for impact.

• Design, monitoring & evaluation, performance management towards managing for impact
• Strategic innovation capacity for development effectiveness
• Strategic competencies for navigating complexity

Pieter Windmeijer
Integrated natural resource management specialist. He focuses on project management, institutional capacity development and interdisciplinary research.

• Integrated natural resource management
• Interdisciplinary research
• Project management

Jim Woodhill
Director of CDI. Political economist and agricultural scientist, fascinated by the links between local and global processes of change. Experienced process facilitator, evaluator and trainer. Passion for helping development professionals and organisations to be more questioning, creative and innovative by linking theory, practice and team building.      

• Multi-stakeholder learning change processes
• Institutional innovation for sustainable market development
• Implications of complexity for development policy and strategy

Henk Zingstra
Ecosystems Governance programme leader. An excellent team leader and advisor on water resources and ecosystems governance. He developed his qualifications in a number of successful projects. He specialises in creating effective institutions, with the capacities required to implement relevant international legislation and agreements.

• Strategy and policy development
• Integrated ecosystems and water resources management
• Project formulation and project management