Afghanistan

Hello, Vibrant Community!

I’m Marie, and since February 2022, I’ve been steering the ship here as the Community Manager of Capacity4dev.

A wanderer at heart and by profession, my academic and work journeys have whisked me across five European nations and allowed me to dip my toes into professional adventures in seven countries globally. During my BA studies at the Metropolitan University of Prague, I carved out a little piece of history as the first student to navigate through the Erasmus+ program at the International BURCH University in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Quite a ride, I must say!

Your stories, projects, and experiences are the heartbeats of Capacity4dev, and I’m here to ensure they echo throughout our online spaces, sparking connections, inspiring projects, and fostering our growing web of international cooperation.

Feel free to drop me a line at marie.zamecnikova@meldea.eu. I’m here to chat, assist, or explore collaboration opportunities that will elevate our collective efforts on this platform.

Eagerly awaiting our shared journey ahead,

Marie

The consultant has a solid background in the field of food and nutrition security for ensuing active and healthy life, has over 25 years of international experience involving communication with various stakeholders, policy-making and strategic planning, results-based management and performance monitoring, and implementation of plans and activities. He is a specialist in agriculture, food and nutri-tion and transformation of agri-food systems, with experience in International Cooperation.
• Over 20 years of experience in the agriculture, food and nutrition sector providing technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of Ministries and relevant authorities with regards to de-veloping Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Policies
• Experience as Team Leader of numerous projects addressing agriculture, food security, and rural development, including conducting evaluations in fragile contexts.
• Solid track record in programme and project management, well prepared to undertake devel-opment and monitoring and review of operational plans, and providing support to implementing them and addressing cross-cutting issues (gender equality, environmental sustainability, and good governance issues).
• Solid track record of conducting evaluations, analysing projects relevance, performance and contribution to development objectives, including relevant aspects of intervention logic and re-sults framework and workplans.
• Angus has worked on food systems and business development across various relevant sub-sectors.
• Good capacity to analyse key actors and business environment. He is well experienced in broad based socio-economic development and poverty reduction processes.
• Solid career in support to programming, risk analyses and the identification of mitigating measures, organizational capacity development, management, and consultation and continu-ous learning processes.
• Practical expertise in capacity building and institutional development, including the provision of training and conducting of workshops.
• Frequent Team leader of multidisciplinary teams

In 2016 and 2017 he he worked in South Sudan in the role of Monitoring and Evaluation_Team Leader
Technical support and advisory services to increase the effectiveness of EU financed Rural Development interventions (FSTP, SORUDEV and ZEAT-BEAD) to support the South Sudan Development Plan 2011-2016 to reduce the vulnerability of rural communities and enhance their agricultural productivity and food security. Key areas of support: 1) Monitoring and coordination of actions; 2) Organising extension services; 3) Supporting calls for proposals and new projects; 4) Evaluating programme performance. Beneficiaries are the implementing partners and key stakeholders of the EU's rural development programmes in South Sudan.

Hur Hassnain (MDS, MBA) is an evaluation specialist, author, Treasurer and founding Board Member at the International Evaluation Academy. Currently he is working as the Senior Evaluation Expert at Meldea, the European Commission DG INTPA, DG NEAR, and FPI’s external service on Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Design supporting the headquarter units, and over a hundred EU Delegations around the world.

Hur has authored several internationally peer reviewed publications, including a book as lead author: Evaluation in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict and Violence published in 2021. It presents an interesting argument that “evaluation” – like development aid itself – can unintentionally exacerbate tensions in ways that can negatively affect people and institutions if care is not taken in designing and approaching it with caution and sensitivity.

Hur has over 20 years of experience of working in a variety of thematic areas including but not limited to gender equality, rural development, climate change, renewable energy, agriculture, women’s economic empowerment, education, and protection. He has lived and worked in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Hur has designed, commissioned, and conducted research and evaluations for projects funded by UN agencies, the European Commission, private donors and the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Hur is a staunch advocate of the Latin proverb "rerum cognoscere causas", signifying the pursuit of understanding the causes of things – a guiding principle that underpins his work and philosophy.

Economist