Child soldiers

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.

Dr. Guilain Mathe is a political scientist with more than 18 years of professional experience in policy-oriented research, as well as in the management of international cooperation programmes. He holds a PhD in Peace and Security Studies and has specific competencies as a Strategic Planning and Result Based Management Expert, having extensively provided his expertise to numerous monitoring and evaluation of peace and security programmes implemented in African countries. Dr Mathe has very solid skills in project monitoring and evaluation aimed at strengthening capabilities of public authorities and security institutions. His areas of expertise relate to: Transnational Organised Crime (illicit trafficking in arms, persons, drugs, falsified medical products, and natural resources); Security Sector Reform (SSR), Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE), Human Rights, Stabilization & Recovery, and Institutional development & Capacity-building. Additionally, he is used to working on sensitive issues and in politically, economically, and culturally fragmented societies, having conducted missions in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Central and West African countries. He has overseen the monitoring of the project "Enhancing National Institutions for setting-up the indicators system on firearms control » in Niger and Mauritania. Furthermore, Dr. Mathe has developed training modules and provided technical advice to high-level public officials and international donors for improving the efficiency of development cooperation projects, besides being a multilingual expert proficient in English, French, Swahili, and Lingala. For example, he has led numerous Result-Oriented Monitoring missions (ROM review) for assessing large-scale projects funded by the EU in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the EU interventions aimed at strengthening the capacity of the G5 Sahel Joint Force to fight against terrorism and other related forms of transnational organized crime in the Sahel.

As EU CBRN CoE Content Manager, I develop the communications, visibility, documentation and branding efforts of the EU CBRN CoE, the EU’s largest civilian external security programme, through internal and external channels, including the maintenance and update of websites, databases, and the delivery of dissemination and promotional material.

I am a programme and project manager for EU and UN funded projects in the security sector, specialised in capacity building actions, police and military training, institutional advising, with specific focus on counter-terrorism, asymmetric threats, organised crime, technology innovation and research.

I directly participated in about 60 projects over 17 years in Europe, South East Asia, MENA, Sahel, Horn of Africa regions, as project manager, team member or short term expert.
I hold a Degree in Law and Master Degrees in “Theories and Methods in criminal investigation” and in "Strategic Information and Information Security", as well as specialization courses in CBRNe intelligence, crisis management, civil-military cooperation, law enforcement.

Italian Carabinieri military officer (reserve) specialised in international cooperation, I work as Senior Expert in EU funding at Eutalia (public company), dealing with operational as well as administrative and contractual duties.
Member of the Management Board at the Observatory on Security and CBRNe Defence – OSDIFE, Italy and co-founder at Il Caffè Geopolitico, cultural association and magazine on geopolitics.

International lawyer and Rule of Law senior expert specialised in development and evaluation of EU funded external actions and other cooperations programmes supporting justice and security sector reform, human rights, gender equality, democratic governance, peacebuilding, civil society and assistance to vulnerable groups, namely in crisis, transition and post conflict countries, in MENA and Africa.

I am an Italian lawyer focusing on human rights advocacy and litigation.