I am a development expert and manager with experience in Latin America, Africa and Asia and have led projects and programs focused on poverty reduction and sustainable development in e.g. value chains, entrepreneurship and local governance processes, with a specific focus on gender-related and environmental issues. I have ample experience in involving private-sector actors through linkages with their core business as well as through investments in community development. Apart from on-the-ground project implementation I have developed research, evaluations, methodologies and publications, among others for Ford Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank, leveraging experiences in poverty reduction and making them available for public and private actors interested in successfully working with low-income communities and markets.
In 2011, I was appointed Regional Director for SNV in Latin America, leading the organization through the final stages of a change process from a subsidized entity to an organization operating in the marketplace, successfully fulfilling its mission of poverty reduction and economic inclusion. In 2014, I moved on to lead a global program on Women Economic Empowerment, funded by H&M Foundation and implemented through CARE International in 12 countries in the Global South. In April 2018, I became the CEO for CARE Nederland. This Dutch NGO is a member of CARE International, a confederation of NGO’s dedicated to humanitarian action, poverty reduction and social justice worldwide.
As CEO of CARE Nederland, since 2018, I am a member of the Board of the Dutch Coalition for Humanitarian Innovation (DCHI - an inter-agency initiative that aims to increase the impact and reduce the cost of emergency action through innovation with private and public partners in The Netherlands) and of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA - a coalition of 16 Dutch aid organisations in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who collaborate to respond to major international crises in a timely and effective manner).
Increasing the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable is crucial for CARE. We hope to collaborate with the 4TU Resilience Centre in terms of exchange of expertise and tools that can support people in the Global South.