Japan

I am a Tunisian sociologist with over 25 years of experience in gender equality, social inclusion, and participatory governance. I have led and contributed to numerous EU-funded projects in Tunisia, supporting rural communities, women’s leadership, and inclusive public policies. I have moderated international events (CSW69), trained civil society organisations, and produced strategic reports. I’m passionate about sharing knowledge from the field, especially around gender and territorial equity in the MENA region.

Vladimir Gumilar was born in Ljubljana in 1964. He holds a Master of Science in construction from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and an MBA from the University of Kansas, USA. He is a director (cluster manager) of the Construction Cluster of Slovenia (SLOVENSKI GRADBENI GROZD-GIZ).

He was deeply involved in technological development in the construction industry, coordinating different R&D projects and activities. His basic research topic was quality in the construction industry: application of ISO 9000 management system, product and service assessment, quality marks and certification, total quality management, and total quality products. Based on this research work, he has developed a scheme for a product and service assessment, which is a cornerstone for a project Quality Mark in Construction. This project has been running successfully since 1997. His second, but no less important, research topic was information technology to improve the quality of products and services in this industry. He was a research assistant in developing a national technical information system, TIGRA, and a manager of different information services in the Building Centre of Slovenia.

In the last 15 years, he has been essential in developing and managing the national construction cluster. Since April 2004, he has been a cluster manager of the Construction Cluster of Slovenia (CCS), a national cluster with members from different fields of the construction industry, coordinating different RTD and other cluster projects. Since 2005, he has also been actively involved in EU R&D projects: e-NVISION, TECH-TRANSFER, REGCON, MESSIB, OPEN HOUSE, RECTYRE, EE-HIGHRISE, NEWBEE, SILENTWALL, and STEELPROST - supporting the R&D activities as an SME association and/or performing activities of the dissemination and exploitation. In the REGCON project, he developed the ICM333 methodology for the development of the innovation clusters in construction. He was coordinating two EU projects: STOREPET, Development of PCM-based innovative insulating solutions for the Light-weight building sector, FP7 programme; and ECCA, European Circular Construction Alliance – adopting Circular Economy for internationalisation and global competitiveness of European SMES in Building and Construction, EU COSME programme. In this project, he gained advanced competencies in circular economy, in addition to core engineering and managerial skills. He is a cluster manager strongly networked in the EU clusters` community, supporting CCS to be involved in Escp4i (ECCA), ESCP3S (Cyber Secure Light), and ESCP4X (SMART4NZEB). He is a member of expert or advisory boards of different EU projects (CINDERELA – H2020; SMARTBUID4EU-H2020) and members of the National Energy Efficiency Advisory Board at the Ministry of Economy and Spatial Planning.

Professional competences:

1. Cluster and other new collaborative organisational and business models development and implementation, international networking and collaboration between clusters and other subjects of innovation eco systems. Cross sectoral collaboration.
2. Building sustainability planning and assessment, resource efficiency, green, circular construction and economy
3. Innovation management, open innovation, training and innovation competencies development
4. Digitalization of construction sector, BIM, IOT, smart building
5. Preparation and collaboration in RTD projects, representing industry association and industry needs and expectations, and/or directly involving cluster members (industry actors) to project activities, and/or in dissemination and exploitation activities
6. EU and national R&D and innovation projects coordination and management, including costs / financial reporting and/or supporting dissemination and exploitation actions in EU funded RTD projects, technology transfer and intellectual property issues.

Personal characteristics and leading competences: he is reliable in performing his daily work, thinking about its improvement and changes all the time. He is paying a great attention to the team building and team work. He can play a role of a respected leader and manager. He is good in a team work and organizing different professionals and experts for the common objectives. He can express his new ideas orally and in writing. He can manage and use new organizational, technical and information knowledge, tools and sources with great effectiveness.

African. Nigerian. UN civilian peacekeeper in the Sahel region. Ex-UNDP and ex-UNIDO.

Appreciates music, LatAm dance, culture, languages, food, fictional literature. Thinker. Voyager. 

Joaquin, director of To the core of things, is a monitoring, evaluation, researcher and programme manager of multimillion regional programmes and projects specialised in human rights, media, gender, community tourism and children/youth.

As the director and principal consultant of To the core of things consultancy firm, I bring over two decades of experience in results-based management, monitoring, and evaluation of international development programs, with a deep familiarity with EU and UNEG norms and standards. Throughout my career, I have developed and refined evaluation systems, policies, and related guidance for various DGs, national authorities, international NGOs and UN agencies. My work spans multiple regions, including Africa, Latin America, and Asia, focusing on human rights, media, gender, and education and youth programs. Notably, I have led strategic consultancies for different EU instruments including EIDHR, the EU social fund and also outside the EU for UNESCO and OHCHR. These consultancies focused on monitoring, evaluation, and reporting functions of international organizations including the assessment of these functions of UN agencies, OECD, the Council of Europe and the European Union.

My methodological expertise includes mixed-methods approaches and quasi-experimental designs that emphasise client and partner ownership, coherence with learning curves, and pragmatic solutions. These tools, developed under the Creative Commons IP from To the Core of Things, include research guidelines, organisational capacity assessment, modular reconstruction and adaptation of theories of change, stakeholder network maps methodologies, case study guidelines and approaches, outcome harvesting through Most Significant Change stories and implementation of machine learning approaches to development cooperation programmes.

The principles I apply in all my works are ownership of the works and the processes by the client and partners (through a strong participatory approach); alignment with latest trends in the field (including ICT4D, statistical techniques and humanistic considerations); coherence with the learning curve of the clients, and; pragmatism, proposing solutions in line with the interests, philosophy and capacities of the clients and its partners.

Key relevant work that reflects this range of skills and passions include ROM reviews for multi-country EU programmes, consultancies for UNESCO (evaluaitons, periodic reporting consultancies or MEAL system TA). Also for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) I have developed as well another strategic consultancy assessing their in-house monitoring and reporting function plus other programme and country evaluations. Other donors, include USAID, with consultancies carried for US Internews setting up the methodologies, managing seven multicultural teams and producing seven research products for their Rooted in Trust programme and leading several programme evaluations. Some other relevant examples of my works are the evaluation of an agriculture cooperative based project in Ethiopia funded by NORAD, the evaluation of a community radios programme in Zambia funded by the Netherlands; the research manager position for ECORYS and also academic publications in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation.

For more information visit https://tothecoreofthings.consulting; check our track of projects.