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.

I am a project management professional with a proven track record and passion for innovation and sustainable development and the climate transition. My experience includes more than 25 years in international project management-development and ~10 years from marketing and B2B-sales. I am a holder of a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Economics, which has been complemented with studies in International Development Cooperation and Leadership.

My experience includes nine years with the European Commission, two years with the United Nations, 3 years with the development consultant agency Hifab International and nine years as international project developer for the City of Växjö, where I started in 2012 working with project development for sustainable urban development. In the fall of 2021, I shifted back to international development cooperation joining Sida/the Swedish Embassy in Amman, Jordan to work on climate, environment, and economic development in MENA-region where I joined a team working on the climate dialogue in the MENA region. In August 2023, I took up a management position with the think-tank the Al-Attiyah Foundation in Qatar, engaging in the climate- and energy transition for a brief engagement. I have also been a working resident in Thailand (for UN) had an earlier worked for the European Commission in Jordan, Barbados and Uruguay and have work experience from several other countries in Asia, Africa, Caribbean, Europe and Latin America.

During my nine years working with EU, I facilitated more than 60 projects in tourism, private- and public sector development and built a thorough knowledge and experience of project management processes and tools, including procurement.

I have solid team leader experience, including from being the program coordinator from one successful EU financed, long term economic development/institutional capacity building project in Jordan (IS-ASEZA). This project has given me extensive experience in supervision of multidisciplinary technical assistance teams and knowledge in all aspects of how to start and manage complex EU funded projects, in later years focusing on sustainable development, incl. environment and climate.

I have much experience from project development and proposal writing which many times lead to successful projects in different areas related to sustainable development in different parts of the world. I have also been involved in designing and holding international project management training.

I have a professional career of 25 years in the field of communication. The first 8 years as a journalist in press, television and online media. Since 2003, I have developed my career in the field of communication for development on projects of international cooperation in non-governmental organizations, international organizations and national cooperation agencies; since 2012, specifically in programmes financed by the European Union in Latin America and the Caribbean. This stage includes 8 years of fieldwork in Guatemala and El Salvador, Central American region, accumulating 20 years of work experience with Latin America and the Caribbean.