Tunisia

With 20 years experience in non-formal education and the non-profit sector, my background is Communication and Anthropology. Started my career as a journalist in 1992 and I am passionate about video production, photography and documentary filmmaking - my favourite tool is stories of life.

I'm interested in visual Anthropology, photovoice, theory of change, communication for development (C4D), civic media literacy and other impactful tools and approaches in the fields of global education, community development, international cooperation and democracy. Thus, I was a founder of NGDO 4Change 19 years ago.

All these have been nurtured over the years - and I may say these also applied to my life and family (two kids, one cat). I've actually started working in non-formal education and non-profit sectors as a volunteer before it became serious work. Always focusing on 'how we can communicate better', 'how a team works', 'how to enhance participation and support diverse voices' - how to be fair in life or trade...

These have been my life and work main challenges.

I've now embraced a new challenge: research in the area of democratic governance, alternatives for civic participation and, of course, climate changes - within the framework of an European consortium managing Horizon Europe funded research programme INCITE_DEM.

I am a Data and Evaluation expert, former journalist, with 18 years of professional experience, currently working as Evaluation, data and knowledge expert, in the core team of MELDEA project, providing help desk evaluation support DG INTPA and DG NEAR. Following an education at the European School of Brussels II, he graduated in Journalism at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL, École de Journalisme de Louvain), and worked for 4 years as a journalist in Brussels covering EU News. This was followed by 7 years working in the management of International Development projects for consulting companies, and 7 years working as an expert in evaluation, data analysis, communication and knowledge management for the evaluation helpdesk technical assistances with DG INTPA, DG NEAR and FPI, which is his current assignment.
In the past 7 years, he has applied his data analysis skills and knowledge of EU Project Cycle Management to the field of developmental evaluation, with the objective to improve evaluation practices and learning from evaluations in the EC institutions. He has an excellent knowledge of EU Policies and guiding principles of Team Europe initiative, Strategic Planning and Programming Cycle (SPP), Financial Guidelines and EU funding mechanisms, and an excellent knowledge EC financial and contracting procedures (PRAG, INTPA Companion), Intervention Cycle Management guidelines, internal reporting and monitoring.

The Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding and Security network is a leading network on peacebuilding and conflict transformation, counting more than 60k members.

Join our group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/116981/

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Join our Telegram Channel: https://t.me/joinchat/1pgWaoyEE0RhOTA0

Subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMRJmjQ5Zw-qCEqEEsgGBdQ

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Bianca Baumler is an expert in EU strategic communication and public diplomacy and engages with civil society, local government and other stakeholders across the globe. She has been working for the EU for around 18 years - as both a senior consultant/expert and as an EU institution staff member.

Bianca is the part-time key communication expert for the European Commission (DG INTPA – International Partnerships) DEAR programme: Development Education and Awareness-Raising. She also works as a free-lance consultant, drafting communication strategies and writing speeches. 

Bianca worked at the EU Delegations to Syria and to Ukraine for seven years – shortly before the wars erupted. She has led EU public diplomacy projects and activities in South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.

Part of the founding team of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), Bianca developed all its communications and outreach from scratch. She worked together with civil society representatives and democracy activists in the EU Neighbourhood to promote their work and the role of the EED.

Bianca regularly organises VIP, civil society and media visits and tours. She has run and evaluated 360’ communication campaigns, together with PR agencies and EU officials. She has organised hundreds of events on topics ranging from democracy support to AI, from climate change to LGBTI rights. She has a particular interest in the EU Green Deal, and has organised many relevant communication activities, including the EU-Ukraine Sustainable Energy Days, which have since become an annual event.

A Fulbright scholar, Bianca has degrees from Yale University, SciencesPo-Paris (1998-99) and the Free University-Berlin (1996-2000), and recently completed an executive Harvard course on leadership and community organising. Bianca is the author of “EU Public Diplomacy in an ever-changing world.” A US-German citizen, she is fully tri-lingual in English, German and French, and also speaks Italian.

Secretary General of a regional employers organization from EuroMed countries of 25 members