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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Her professional work experiences include four years of managing army demobilization and reintegration programs in Ethiopia, four years of managing regional development programs in Ethiopia with Action Aid International, and more than 15 years of coordinating the implementation of the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in the Horn of Africa with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Notable professional achievements include successful implementation of the demobilization and reintegration of ex-soldier’s funded by the World Bank, and managing the establishment of the Regional Mediation Support Unit, and the Regional Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development program within IGAD.

She holds two Masters Degrees, including an MA in International Relations, and an MA in “Managing Peace and Security in Africa”, both from Addis Ababa University. Legawork additionally has several international diplomas including in “leadership and development studies” from Indian Institute of Development Studies, India, and “Peace and security studies in Africa” from Uppsala University, Sweden.

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Her research focuses on the governance of countering violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa. She is specifically interested in the trajectories of former recruits of the terrorist group Boko Haram and their reintegration in Cameroon.

Lydie is actively involved in her field of expertise and worked as coordinator of PREV-IMPACT project for the UNESCO Chair in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Canada before becoming a research associate for a study led with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Previously, she served at the Court of Arbitration of Côte d’Ivoire, in the Training Section of the International Bureau for Children’s Rights and as a researcher with the Peace Operations Research Network in Montreal.

To read more about Lydie, kindly visit: https://lydiec.belporo.com/

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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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Her research interests include the dynamics of conflicts and crises in Sub-Saharan Africa and their impact on women on girls. An Associate Fellow of the West Africa Think Tank (WATHI), Pelumi has been published by WATHI, ISS Africa, Business Day and Social Good Lagos.

With her professional experience spanning across research, facilitation, and policy development, Pelumi has worked with different international organizations including DAI Global LLC, Global Affairs Canada and the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Her current research focuses on women’s experiences and perspectives of transitional justice measures implemented against the background of the Boko Haram crises in the Lake Chad Basin.

To read more about Pelumi Obisesan, kindly visit: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/oluwapelumi-obisesan

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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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He is affiliated with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a DHS Center of Excellence. His research focuses on nonstate actor violence and the causes of political discrimination particularly related to ethnicity, sexuality and gender. He also researches nuclear crisis behavior and pedagogy.

Asal has been involved in research projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, The Department of Homeland Security, The National Science Foundation, The Office of Naval Research and the Department of Homeland Security.

To read more about Victor Asal, kindly visit: https://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/faculty/victor-asal

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