He joined the Canadian Navy in 1975 and graduated from the Royal Military College in 1980 and served in numerous staff, command, exchange, training and operational positions onboard ship and ashore. In 1991 he went as a UN peacekeeper to El Salvador which changed his life’s focus from the Navy to peacekeeping and DDR.

Seconded to the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) in 1997 he co-created the first formal DDR course which was eventually taught around the world. When he retired from the Navy he continued as Director of DDR Programmes at the PPC, further developing DDR and co-authoring the DDR Handbook – A Field and Classroom Guide and initiated the Integrated DDR Training Group which brought together like minded DDR training Centres to help advance and standardize global DDR Training.

Kees was selected to be the Senior Advisor DDR at the Swedish National Defence College from 2004 to 2008, where his duties included DDR Training and DDR-related advice to Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He helped initiate and worked with the Stockholm Initiative on DDR (SIDDR) which looked at the issues of DDR and peace negotiations, DDR financing and improving reintegration. He was an integral part of the development of the UN Integrated DDR Standards, the first significant multi-agency UN DDR guidance document which will helps standardize terminology, policy and procedures for DDR throughout the UN.

From 2008-12, Kees was the first Coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR where he helped to coordinate 17 UN agencies working with the IDDRS and DDR at both the policy and field levels. Together they collected field lessons, develop knowledge management, training and advance DDR policy, training and knowledge from around the world. Together with UNITAR he helped create the first online training program which continues to expand.

As a consultant Kees continues to work in/on most conflict countries with a DDR element. His work has taken him to global hotspots such as Libya, Lake Chad basin, Mali, Philippines, DRC, Burundi, Colombia and Yemen just to mention a few, while working for a host of countries, different UN Agencies as well as members of the IDDRTG and other training institutes.

Fluent in English, Spanish and French, Kees strongly believes in cooperation and coordination between all DDR actors.

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Her most recent work is on comparative policing. She has conducted fieldwork in Colombia, Central America, Melanesia, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Her 2017 book, Electing Peace: From Civil Conflict to Political Participation, was published by Cambridge University Press and won the 2018 Charles H. Levine Memorial Book Prize. Her work has also been published by Foreign Affairs, Governance, International Security, Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and elsewhere.

She previously worked at the RAND Corporation and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She has held fellowships at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and UCSD’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

She received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and her A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University.

To read more about Aila M. Matanock, kindly visit: http://www.ailamatanock.com/

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Her first book, Rape During Civil War (Cornell University Press, 2016), examines the variation in the use of rape during recent civil conflicts; the research for the book draws on extensive fieldwork in Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and El Salvador. Cohen’s second book, Lynching and Local Justice: Legitimacy and Accountability in Weak States, was published in 2020 with Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Elements: Political Economy series.) The book, coauthored with Danielle F. Jung, draws on original survey and focus group data collected during fieldwork in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Cohen was the recipient of the 2019 Emerging Scholar Award from the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association, the Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award from the American Political Science Association, the Best Book Awards from the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) and the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies (FTGS) Section of the International Studies Association, and the Heinz I. Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review in the previous year.

Cohen received her Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and an A.B. in political science and philosophy from Brown University.

To read more about Dara Kay Cohen, kindly visit: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/dara-kay-cohen

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His other areas of expertise and research interests include UN peace operations, UN arms embargoes, prevention of diversion, illicit arms and ammunition flows, counter-terrorism, and conflict prevention. Prior to re-joining UNIDIR, Hardy worked for the Arms Embargo Cell of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), UNMAS, MONUSCO, Geneva Call and the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.

He holds a master’s degree in International Relations, Peace and Security Studies from the Institute for International Studies in Barcelona, as well as a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Geneva.

Hardy has authored, co-authored, and contributed to numerous publications on conventional arms control. He speaks English, French, Spanish and (Swiss) German.

To read more about Hardy Giesendanner, kindly visit: https://www.unidir.org/staff/hardy-giezendanner

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She has 16 years of professional experience with 4 UN peacekeeping missions as DDR/SSR team leader in MINUSTAH, UNOCI, MONUSCO, MINUSMA, and in a 2nd tour of duty with MONUSCO since 2019 as Director of Cabinet, Coordination and Planning Officer, Regional and Provincial Team Leader in the Political Affairs Division and PDDRCS Focal Point in Kinshasa.

Aimee Therese’s previous UN Country Team experience includes program management consulting with UNIDO, UNDP, UNIDIR in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea Conakry, and on a secondment to IOM as Program Manager of the Disengagement, Disassociation, Reintegration and Reconciliation (DDRR) program in Chad for former Boko Haram affiliates in the Lake Chad basin.

Aimee Therese joins the team from a previous assignment in Haiti 12 years ago, where she worked at IMTC as a training officer, at the DDR Division as a CVR program monitoring and evaluation officer, and as a CVR-DDR team leader in Les Cayes.

A Senegalese national, she holds a PhD in English literature from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

To read more about Aimee Therese Faye, kindly visit: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/aimeetheresefaye

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Khaled has accumulated an expertise in supporting national stakeholders to design and implement complex DDR and CVR programs that had led to significant peace consolidation. As a senior staff of UN Peacekeeping operations, and given his background as a professional diplomat with the government of Egypt, Khaled was a pioneer in negotiating sensitive Security Council mandates on DDR, CVR and SSR and other stabilization measures with national authorities both at the civilian and the military levels to ensure a transparent, inclusive, gender and human rights based processes that would lead to effective DDR processes and programs.

He has been praised for his innovative approaches and some of the programs he conceived have been considered as an added value to international Best Practice. He also played a strategic role in providing political and security advice to UN senior leadership including DPO, UNCT and UN Humanitarian country teams (HCT) on DDR, CVR and SSR issues and their impact on the overall mandated objectives of the UN particularly in Protection of Civilians, Restoration of State Authority and supporting complex and participatory political processes. Khaled has also played a crucial role in advocacy and resource mobilization given his long experiences in coordinating multiple DDR stakeholders both at national and international levels.

Khaled worked in several countries in the African continent, such Sudan, South Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR). He also served in other conflict-affected settings such as Lybia and Yemen. He is currently the Principal Coordinator of the Stabilization Support Unit in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC.

Khaled is fully bilingual (English- French). His mother tongue is Arabic and he is also fluent in Italian.

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Mr. Diagne has in the last 20 years gained extensive experience in the field of DDR, and is adept in political and military dynamics of conflict given his background and work in MINUSMA combined with the expertise gained in ONUCI, MONUC and MONUSCO. During his time with the UN, Mr. Diagne has collected, analyzed and shared critical insights that facilitated the leadership’s decision on strategy and approaches to SSR/DDR.

As an active member of the implementation of the defense and security provisions of the Peace Agreement in Mali, which include SSR and DDR aspects, Mr. Diagne is attending and charing many different fora, including among others the SSR-DDR working group and secretary/focal point of the SSR-DDR strategic committee headed by the SRSG and attended by the ambassadors in the country.

In addition, Mr. Diagne has contributed to the drafting and finalizing of the accelerated DDR program to facilitate the disarmament and demobilization of 2200 combatants of signatories armed groups and the integration of 1765 of them into the Malian defense and security forces, the Community Rehabilitation Program designed for the Center of Mali, and the National DDR Strategy and program in Mali.

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He has extensive experience working with a number of different international organisations such as the EU and NATO, and has among other things been a focal point in the EU Task Forces on DDR and SSR.

He has also worked with contexts such as Bosnia-Hercegovina, Lebanon, Mozambique, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan in his different capacities.

LtCol Abrahamsson has throughout his career worked on issues relating to analysis and planning, logistics, national defence planning, security and EOD and demining.

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She has served in the United Nations system since 2004, in various United Nations Peacekeeping missions and UN Special Political Missions and in the United Nations Development Programme. She served in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) as Head of DDR Section in 2017-2018, based in Mogadishu; as DDR Officer, Head of the “Operations & Projects Cell, in MINUSCA (United Nations Mission in Central African Republic), from March 2015 to March 2017; in MONUSCO (UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) as DDR/RR Team Leader/North Kivu from March 2013 to March 2015, based in Goma; in UNMIS (UN Mission in Sudan), based in Wau/Western Bahr-el Ghazal State, and in UNMISS (UN Mission in South Sudan), based in Juba, as Civil Affairs Officer from end 2010 to March 2013; in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq as Humanitarian Affairs Officer, based in Baghdad, from July 2009 to December 2010; in the United Nations Operation in Ivory Coast (UNOCI) as DDR Officer between 2007 and 2009.

She served as Reintegration Expert for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the period 2004-2006, in a programme for reintegration of ex-combatants and community recovery in the eastern D.R. Congo. She worked in Kosovo from October 2001 to March 2004 for an International NGO, implementing projects for the socio-economic reintegration of people with disabilities.

Prior to these work experiences in post-conflict contexts, she worked in Italy, her home country, in various programmes for socio-economic reintegration of vulnerable groups (people with disabilities, ex-detainees, ex-drug addicts, immigrant women victims of trafficking).

Ms Zenaide Gatelli holds a University Degree in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Peacebuilding and Conflict Management from the University of Trento (Italy).

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She has an international reputation in the field of socio-economic reintegration of adults and children formally associated with armed groups, veterans, youth employment, gender, prevention of violent extremism and community-based reintegration and security programming. Seven years of field and headquarter experience in the ILO Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction has provided her with expertise on employment issues and economic reintegration. She brings solid expertise in policy, strategy and programme design (including TOCs), evaluations and applied research in DDR, CVR Release and Reintegration of CAFAAG and related fields.

Her record as a researcher and writer might is illustrated in her long publications list, and Irma is known for her ability to translate research findings in the actionable recommendations and programming.

Further, Irma has extensive experience in training, facilitation and design of tailor-made training courses and materials. She worked in most conflict affected countries around the world, and is the managing director of the international consultancy firm Transition International.

To read more about Irma Specht, kindly visit: http://www.transitioninternational.com/

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