Civil Society

MSc Corporate Communications and Development Cooperation specialist, with experience in European projects, the achievement of public and private funds, the administration of profit and non-profit organisations and the management of projects for social promotion, in Europe and Latin America.

During the last 7 years, Patricia has been working as Project Manager and Communication Expert in a series of advocacy campaigns for European funded projects and for the European Commission Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development.

This profile is managed by the DEAR Support Team, which works with DEAR projects and DG INTPA to help manage the EU DEAR Programme.

Support Facility Roadmaps for EU engagement with Civil Society

Policy Adviser in the Unit dealing with strategic partnerships with Africa and in particular, the African Union. Following up the files related to agriculture, food and nutrition, natural resources, biodiversity.

Blerina Vila has nearly two decades of experience (most of which at international level) in institutional capacity building and policy advice on development planning with a rights-based approach, with focus on gender equality and child labour. For the past 12 years she has worked closely with the European Commission as expert on gender equality mainstreaming contributing to identifying feasible solutions to the problems posed by the delivery of technical assistance in areas such as human rights and governance, education and health reform, commerce, infrastructure, nutrition, food security and social protection, reform of the judiciary system, and how gender issues and women's rights need to be integrated into them. Until end of 2014 worked as a programme officer with the Gender and Non Discrimination Programme at the International Training Centre of ILO (ITCILO  http://gender.itcilo.org/cms/). Currently she is director of consultancy firm Wexam Consulting vof.

In 2015 she assisted the EC’s and EU Member States’ Task Force that drafted the EU Gender Action Plan 2016 – 2020 (http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/10/26-fac-c…), including working very closely with the DEVCO B Directorate in identifying institutional mechanisms to facilitate its implementation. Currently she is the leader of the team of experts tasked to assist the EC and EU Delegations to comply with the GAP requirement of generating and using gender analysis for purposes of planning the cooperation with partner countries.

She is fluent in Albanian, English, French, Italian, has a good knowledge of Spanish and Dutch. She is based in Belgium.

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.

Hi, I’m Maria. I am a proactive and skilled problem solver working as a Design and Knowledge Management expert in Meldea (Particip). I have a BA in International Relations and an MA in International Development with a specialisation in International Migration, focusing on African politics.

Since March 2024, I have been managing user support activities on the Capacity4dev platform. I monitor the support@capacity4dev.eu mailbox daily, validate new memberships, and check community content. I engage with the different stakeholders present on Capacity4dev, providing non-technical support to users and Space Managers. I also liaise with the IT team for technical issues and analyse user support data to improve the platform.

Feel free to contact me via the support mailbox - support@capacity4dev.eu - anytime you need assistance. You can also reach out through the personal contact form or on LinkedIn.

My passion and curiosity about people, about 'the living', led my personal and professional paths to different places and different countries, where I have experimented with a vast range of encounters and insightful experiences.

For about 30 years I have been involved in the development and coordination of youth-related projects encompassing training courses on intercultural sensitivity and communication, project management, training for trainers, learning 2 learn, and self-directed learning, among others. I also engaged in coaching and in facilitating development and learning processes, for groups or individuals (beyond youth). I had the chance to work with local, national, and European NGOs and platforms, as well as with institutional bodies (European Commission, Council of Europe).

Since then, my path crossed the one of Gestalt therapy and I got trained as a Gestalt therapist at the Belgian Institute of Gestalt Therapy, in Brussels. To support my learning, I continue exploring, discovering and in some cases, training, in different areas such as competence development, the Neurocognitive Behavioural Approach, Inspirational Leadership through Emotional Intelligence and the Process Communication Model. I now have a particular interest in further developing my competencies in the areas of trauma healing and systemic coaching, while being trained on Systemic Family Constellations and their connection with therapy.

From 2017 to 2023, I worked at SALTO Training and Cooperation Resource Centre where I coordinated the development and implementation of the European Training Strategy of the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes.