Citizen participation

My name is Ariella and I am the Capacity4dev Coordinator and Business Manager.

Within the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) I am responsible for knowledge management and communication in Unit D4 - Quality and Results, Evaluation, Knowledge Management.

My previous professional experiences with the European Parliament, UNCTAD and civil society organisations focused on management of projects and events in the field of social policies, culture, youth and development education.

Don't hesitate to contact me for feedback, ideas and collaboration opportunities for Capacity4dev!

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.

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.

Guillermo Delgado is an architect with a focus on urban development and housing; and lecturer at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM).

He lived in Namibia for thirteen years, where he was part of the team that led the review of the national housing programs and the national housing policy. There, he was part of work teams, panels and committees of national projects on urbanization and housing. He has taught courses on research methods, urbanization in the African continent, and on housing. He has supervised master's and doctoral students.

Previously he was a senior lecturer at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), where he headed the Institute for Land, Livelihoods and Housing (ILLH); and before that a researcher at the Labor Resources and Research Institute (LaRRI), where he worked with the labor movement on issues of living conditions and informal economies.

Guillermo obtained his degree in architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA), Mexico City Campus; as well as a master's degree from the Berlage Institute (today The Berlage, at the Delft University of Technology), in the Netherlands; and his PhD in architecture and urban planning from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.

He has worked on various research, consulting, advisory, and educational projects; focused on urbanization, land tenure, governance, housing, social protection, informal settlements, co-production/self-management, and alternative socio-spatial practices.

He has also been a consultant for international cooperation agencies, non-governmental organizations, for the private sector, as well as for development banks.

He is currently the president of the Sub-Saharan Africa Chapter of RedMX, an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote synergies between Mexicans living abroad, as well as with the country.

Currently, I am working at the Coordination of the Practitioners' Network for European Development Cooperation. Before that, I worked as an EU Strategy Officer for FIIAPP (a Spanish development agency with a focus on technical cooperation) at the Brussels office and developing the Practitioners’ Network co-Presidency. Young professional with experience in international public administration, Latin America-EU development cooperation, youth and civic engagement, and peacebuilding. Cross-cultural education, team-oriented, communicative, and proactive professional. I am part of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations as a Fellow 2019, focusing on: “The Role of Women in Peacemaking and Conflict Prevention” (MENA region intercultural exchange fellowship). Master's in Diplomacy and International Relations at the Diplomatic School in 2019.

Freelance expert, highly experienced in implementing and managing EU-funded programmes and projects in the fields of support to civil society, democratic governance and human rights, with a special focus on Africa (Western and Central) and the EUROMED region.