Local authorities and capacity building

Economist specialized on environmental and social impacts assessment

Economist

Yıldırım Gündüç was awarded an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Hacettepe University in 2009. Following the completion of his Master's degree in Eurasian Studies at Middle East Technical University in 2012, Mr Gündüç commenced his professional career at Ankara City Council and subsequently took up a position at the Prime Ministry. From April 2011 to May 2024, Mr Gündüç had the privilege of working as an EU Affairs Expert at the Department of Project Implementation in the Directorate for EU Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2020 to 2021, he had the privilege of working as a National Expert at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy. He was actively involved in a number of capacity-building and grant projects that were closely related to civil society organisations and local authorities. Mr Gündüç has also published two books: EU Grant Schemes: 100 Questions & 100 and Management of EU Funded Technical Assistance Contracts and Grant Programs. In addition, he maintains a personal blog (www.yesilsehirler.com) where he shares best practices, inspiring examples and news from the EU that local authorities may find beneficial in relation to green and smart city issues.

Mr. Casillas has more than Twenty-one years of experience in programme and project management, including ten years in the field of Twinning/Jumelage, both in DG NEAR in the Twinning Coordination Team and in the field, in an EU Delegation in the Caucasus region. Mr. Casillas also specializes in monitoring and evaluation of EU funded programs and projects.

For more than six years years, he has been one of the pillars of the Twinning Coordination Team at the European Commission, Neighbourhood Directorate-General and Enlargement Negotiations Directorate General in Brussels.  As such, ha was the main focal point for MS Twinning National Contact Points network interacting daily with them, in particular regarding the eligibility assessment of public and semi-public administrations as mandated bodies and as helpdesk on rules and procedures and in solving issues with EU delegations and national authorities in IPA and ENI countries. As such, he developed a successful strategy to diversify and increase the number of MS’ participating in calls for proposals in French speaking north African countries. He has been the main trainer on Twinning and has contributed to the Twinning Manual updates since 2012. For five years, he was the Country coordinator for all Western Balkans and Turkey and for three years he was country coordinator for all North Africa, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. He delivered trainings on Twinning in EU Member States (Greece, Malta, Belgium, Denmark, Austria) and in partner countries (Albania, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Turkey, Belarus, Georgia, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco). While working in the Twinning Coordination Team, he also acquired hands on experience on TAIEX, being project officer for several events.

Mr Casillas has also been Twinning, TAIEX and SIGMA coordinator at the European Union delegation in a Caucasus country where for three years, he was responsible for Twinning yearly Programming with PAO and implemented the majority of Twinning projects, such as: Strengthening capacity to strengthen the enforcement of intellectual property and related rights or developing synergies between three Twinning projects related to social protection. He participated as Evaluator in 80% of Twinning calls for proposals, with four to five proposals being submitted for every call. One of his achievements, while working at the Delegation was to increase significantly the number of Twinning projects. The country was quoted as “Twinning Success story” by former Commissioner Hahn and Deputy Maternova. He also multiplyed the number of TAIEX events by three.

Mr Casillas has carried out numerous monitoring and evaluation missions, in Ecuador, Benin, Burundi and Djibouti and very recently he carried out for DG NEAR an evaluation on EU Member States legislation related to public cooperation with all 27 EU Member States.

He holds a master's degree in international politics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and has been delivering trainings on Twinning rules and procedure, proposals preparation, selection and award modalities and Twinning implementation best practices for the past six years at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in Maastricht.

Mr Casillas is presently a freelance expert in Armenia.

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.

Policy Officer in Charge of Development Cooperation and Decentralized Cooperation at the European Committee of the Regions

Project Manager in Land Administration and in the Geo-Spatial and Information Technology environments with expertise in Management, Sales and Marketing from Sweden, South Africa and Africa. Proven track record in leadership, excellent communication and relationship management skills and high cultural sensitivity. Resilient, adapt well to change and a broad scanner, thinking beyond current constraints and practice. Work well under pressure, creating an effective buffer to enable others to work effectively. Ability to successfully meet demanding business targets in a range of roles.

Specialties: Strategy, Leadership, Technical Sales, Project Management, Professional Services Management, Client Relationship Management, Customer Success