Reintegration and SALW control

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. Florent BLANC, Ph.D. is Director of the “Negotiators of Europe” research and training program at ESSEC Business School.
He is the consortium team leader for the implementation of the Framework Contract (HR/R1/PO/2019/024 - LOT 3) covering the conception and delivery of negotiation-related trainings and services for the European institutions. This consortium joins the teams of College of Europe and the European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA).
As part of ESSEC IRENE’s negotiation training team, Florent delivers negotiation-related modules for the European Commission, public institutions in France and around the globe as well as private sector clients.
He contributed to capacity4dev activities as a member of the pool of trainers delivering Policy Dialogue and Negotiation as well as Context for Development modules under recent training contracts. For over 7 years, he also contributed to develop and adapt dedicated training modules for EUD teams (Nepal, Ivory Coast and Barbados). He also advised EUD on contractual negotiations for large infrastructure projects.

He contributed to the EU-PALOP-TL partnership by proposing a reflexion on the dialogue mechanisms and necessary capacity-building for Members of the partnership.

Florent holds a PhD from Northwestern University where he was George Lurcy scholar (Fulbright Program 2004-2005) and adjunct professor between 2006 and 2010. With a focus on national security policies and counterterrorism, Florent taught also courses in immigration policies, social changes, legal studies and journalism methodologies. From 2011 to 2016, he was West African Program manager for a French NGO where he oversaw and delivered projects on social cohesion, crisis prevention and education policy reform, with a focus on Mali. Florent also holds a doctorate from SciencesPo Paris.

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.