Currently, he serves as a Demobilization Advisor supporting Ethiopia’s National DDR Programme under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Ethiopian National Rehabilitation Commission (NRC). Since the signing of the Pretoria Peace Agreement in November 2022, Colonel Gosaye has been actively engaged in implementing Ethiopia’s national DDR process, contributing to the successful demobilization and reintegration of more than 87,000 ex-combatants across Tigray and other regions—a public contribution recognized through national media and partner reports.

Gosaye Tilahun Zeleke is highly experienced in the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS), including rehabilitation programming, psychosocial support, civic training systems, and WAM. Professionally, he specializes in bridging high-level strategic coordination with federal institutions, UN agencies, and international partners.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Peace and Security Studies and a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership, both from Addis Ababa University.

To read more about Colonel Gosaye Tilahun Zeleke, kindly visit: https://nrc.gov.et/?page_id=1490 

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Dr Ghazi is an international expert in managing terrorist offenders within correctional institutions. With over 8 years of specialized field-research inside Super-Max prisons, her PhD focused on disengagement, de-radicalization, rehabilitation, and reintegration. She has worked and collaborated with more than 30 organizations in 16 countries, including serving as a Subject Matter Expert with esteemed international institutions such as the NATO Strategic Direction–South Hub, the OSCE, the African Union, the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition, the Small Arms Survey, USAID, and ICESCO. Her training experience includes working with regional law enforcement and security agencies, notably as an expert with UNOCT (The Arab Interior Ministers Council-Tunisia) and UNODC (Asia-Pacific region). She also led the national design and evaluation framework for correctional and reintegration indicators in Saudi Arabia.

Dr Ghazi is an alumna of several prestigious international programs for professionals and practitioners, through which she gained field experiences within security and social institutions across various countries. This includes participation in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), the OSCE–UNODA Peace and Security Scholarship, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)/Manama Dialogue, The Hague Academy for Local Governance, and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in Australia.

To read more about Maha Ghazi, kindly visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-maha-ghazi-578260132/.

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Prior to this, she was a Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and completed her PhD at the University of Manchester, UK. She also volunteers as an International Liaison Coordinator at Interventions for Advocacy and Effective Community Engagements (IFACE), an NGO in Liberia.

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As a political scientist, Vilhelm has experience in peace and security initiatives across various countries, including Mozambique, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nigeria. He has worked on disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) processes in multiple settings. At FBA, he supports different initiatives such as capacity building, advising and training. His recent work includes supporting DDR and the combat against violent extremism in Mozambique, as well as working with FBA’s support to veteran reintegration in Ukraine.

Previously, Vilhelm served as a Desk Officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Maputo, Mozambique. He holds a Master of Science in Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics from Lund University.

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Lt Col Konaté has many academic achievements, including studies in the United States and Germany, remarkably at the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DILLS), Lackland and Garmisch. Studied topics include for example regional security and programme on terrorism and security studies.

Lt Col Konaté has had many temoporary duty assignments at a number of military schools in Mali and regional Africa. From 2006 to 2013, he was deployed to Tombouctou as a Company Commander. Beyond this, Lt Col Konaté has also served as a staff officer, instructor and intelligence officer in his career.

From 2017 to 2018, he was Chief Intelligence Analyst in charge of reporting on the DDR process in Mali, and he is currently the point of contact on DDR with the EMP-ABB.

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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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As Country Director and Regional Coordinator for NGOs and OCHA Head of Sub-Office Anne has served in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean in small arms control programmes, humanitarian affairs, and economic recovery. Anne started her career in 2004 as Associated Political Affairs Officer in charge of the regional Ituri DDR programme within MONUC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Anne further served as Senior Protection of Civilians Advisor for MINUSMA from 2017 to 2019. She worked as independent facilitator for Peacekeeping training and DDR of ex-combatants with specific focus on disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, conflict/post-conflict crisis management and socio-economic recovery.

German law graduate Anne holds a Master in International Law and a Master in Political Sciences from Laval University in Canada.

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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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He joined the United Nations (UN) system in May 2000, and have since worked in fragile post conflict and politically sensitive settings with UNDPKO (UNOCI, MUNSCO and MINUSCA), UNDP and UN ILO in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Child protection, Human Rights, Community Violence Reduction and Security Sector Reform (SSR) in DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and CAR, including cross-border issues in Chad, Sudan, Mali and Liberia in addition to field complex surveys (UNICEF) and humanitarian work (WVI).

Dr. Ntanga holds master’s Degrees in Rural Development, in Labour Economy and a PhD in Development Economics respectively from Institut Supérieur de Déveleppement Rural (ISDR) Tshibashi, (DRC), Université Toulouse (France) and Université Alassane Ouattara (Ivory Coast). In addition, he is a passionate University Associate Professor, teaching various courses including Community and Rural development and related subjects.

He has (co) authored several books and articles available online, including the Reducing Community Violence in the Central African Republic – The Case of Bria | Small Wars Journal with Dr. Robert MUGGAH.

To read more about Jean de Dieu Desire Ntanga Ntita and the work of MINUSCA, kindly visit: https://minusca.unmissions.org/en

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She brings a development perspective to the often-securitized DDR and PRR approaches and guides UNDP to provide sustainable reintegration solutions for former members of armed forces and groups, their families and communities.

Glaucia brings over 20 years of experience in the UN system, of which 15 years with UNDP as a peacebuilding and development practitioner. She was part of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery from 2006 to 2014 and the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support from 2014 to 2018 and has since then been with the Crisis Bureau. Her one-the-ground technical advice and support has spanned across several countries and regions over these years – Burundi, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia/Aceh, Iraq, Niger, Nigeria, The Philippines, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, Ukraine – and the Great Lakes and Lake Chad Basin regions and institutions.

Since 2018, Glaucia has provided dedicated technical assistance to the formulation of Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (PRR) strategies within the framework of counterterrorism, with focus on community-based reintegration (in Iraq for families with perceived association with ISIL) and through regional approaches in the Lake Chad Basin countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria in response to the Boko Haram Crisis).

Glaucia has a Law Degree (1990) from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a PhD in International Relations with focus on Statebuilding/Peacebuilding (2005) from The Graduate Institute of International Studies, in Geneva, Switzerland.

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