Annabel Trapp

is a dedicated international child rights consultant, with proven experience of leading or supporting the application of (child) rights-based principles in programming outcomes and organisational processes with over 60 child-focused organisations. She is skilled in consultation and research, analysis, strategy development, guidance and training with children and adults in diverse development and humanitarian contexts. She has gained in-depth insights into the diverse and changing situations of children from managing, supporting and conducting research with children and adults in over 18 countries, including Afghanistan; Palestine; Syria, DRC; Uganda, Sri Lanka, Thailand/Myanmar and Pakistan.

Bassel Akar

is Associate Professor of Education, leading education research in lower middle-income, conflict-affected countries, namely Lebanon and those in the wider Arab region, including Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan and Egypt. Over the past 12 years, his research and development work has focused on four core knowledge fields in these fragile contexts undergoing various forms of armed conflict, systemic corruption and violations of children’s rights to education: (1) education for social and human development through citizenship, history and early childhood education; (2) education for young people made vulnerable by war and crises; (3) empowering teachers as agents of sustainable change and (4) ethical and inclusive methods of inquiry for highly vulnerable populations. Bassel has worked closely with international (UNICEF, UNESCO, Caritas Austria, Save the Children, USAID, World Bank) and local organisations in carrying out regional studies in education and facilitating professional development activities for citizenship and history education teachers. Most recently, he examines how teachers exercise agency when taking risks and pioneering classroom activities that engage students in critical pedagogies to explore controversial or sensitive issues. 

Ben Cislaghi

Former Assistant Professor in Social Norms at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Centre for Gender, Health and Violence), Ben coordinated a learning initiative on social norms and gender-based violence. His research work at the LSHTM has contributed to increasing the understanding of how gender norms affect people's health and how their effect can be measured. He has also worked for various NGOs and International Organisations, including UNICEF, WHO, and ILO, and as a researcher with Stanford and Columbia Universities. His research has focused on how community-led development practices can help people renegotiate social norms and collaborate to increase their health and wellbeing. He is interested in how community-based responses can achieve change in social norms and reduction in gender-based violence, and in the role of social norms among other factors in influencing people’s actions.

Bethel Lulie

is a Master of Global Health graduate with extensive research and analytical expertise. She has experience in mixed methods of data collection, analysis, visualization, and report writing. As a Researcher for a gender-based violence prevention program, Bethel has in-depth knowledge of gender studies, social development, and poverty reduction. She held participatory discussions with vulnerable women, with whom she advocated for a government-level action plan to end gender-based violence. As a Research Associate with Proteknôn Consulting, she has designed and implemented programs for the protection of children across Africa, North America, the Middle East, and Europe. She also worked in public health research, notably aiding the development of the national monitoring and evaluation system for Zambia’s and Zimbabwe’s disaster and risk management units.

Elise Reslinger

is a child protection practitioner and researcher of over ten years, with extensive experience in a protracted protection crisis. She has worked with national and international NGOs and UN agencies, primarily within the Middle East and West Africa. Her skillset includes research, child protection programming, training, and guidance. She has expertise on children on the move, forced migration, child protection systems, and child participatory methods. She has a Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection in Emergencies. She is pursuing a PhD on the experiences of accompanied asylum-seeking children (6-12 years old) related to their home-making practices in France. Elise is fluent in French and English, with an intermediate level of Levantine Arabic.

Gaele Chojnowicz

is a protection specialist with 17 years’ experience in humanitarian protection programming, with expertise in child protection, humanitarian coordination, gender and protection mainstreaming, and refugee protection. Gaele has a background in anthropology, political sciences, humanitarian law, and psychology. In 2008, after working as a Protection Officer for UNHCR, Gaele went on to manage protection projects and teams for INGOs in conflict and post-conflict settings in Africa and Asia. Her work focused on improving case management in emergency interventions and promoting child-centred holistic interventions through community strengthening and capacity building of formal and informal social services providers and protection stakeholders. Gaele also works at national and global levels, developing tools and advocacy materials for protection mainstreaming. She has facilitated training sessions for UN agencies and NGOs on child protection in emergency, protection mainstreaming, and humanitarian coordination.

Jeanine Mawazo

is a university graduate in Clinical Psychology with an outgoing personality and good communication skills. She enjoys meeting challenges and seeing them through while remaining confident and good humoured under pressure. Jeanine has over ten years of research experience, working with UN agencies (UNICEF) and bilateral aid organizations, such as UK DfID and USAID, as well as international and national consulting firms on monitoring and evaluation of education, gender, youth development, and child protection programs. Jeanine has extensive experience coordinating fieldwork activities for research projects, including evaluations. She has expertise in hiring qualified data collectors,  facilitating research tools development workshops,  training data collectors on data collection tools, managing data collector teams, field logistics, quantitative/qualitative data collection, data collection supervision (quality assurance), qualitative data transcription/translation, and interpreting statistical data analysis within a local context.

Juventine Mujawase

has over ten years of professional experience as a social science researcher, cultural expert, and translator for scholars, academic institutions, and national and international organisations in Rwanda. She has worked for scholars from Stanford University and the University of Oxford and completed consultancies for UNICEF, Save the Children, USAID and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), among others. She has expertise on children, youth and families in Rwanda, and extensive experience conducting research on education, gender, health and legal issues. Juventine is hardworking, self-motivated and mature with an outgoing personality and excellent communication skills. She excels at building rapport with individuals from diverse backgrounds, enjoys meeting challenges and seeing them through, and remains confident and good-natured under pressure. She is efficient, conscientious and professional in all her work.

KerryAnn Burris

is a professional Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist with more than 10 years of results-based MEL and research experience. She is the holder of a masters in Development Statistics and is currently pursuing certification in Project Management Professional (PMP) and Agile Certified Practitioner. Kerry-Ann has been involved in monitoring and evaluation, research and assessment efforts in numerous topics including human trafficking, child protection, gender-based violence, food waste, public health and community resilience. She has considerable work experience internationally via consultancies and regionally, having coordinated research activities between islands and countries for the last 2+ years. Kerry-Ann has regional expertise in Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. She speaks English with native fluency and has working fluency in Spanish.

Kyra Loat

is an international policy specialist who is just beginning her journey in the field of child protection in humanitarian action. With one year of experience at the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of British Columbia, Kyra hopes to drive positive change in the protection of human rights, gender-equality and international humanitarian law. Kyra is based in Vancouver, Canada and speaks English with native fluently.

Léon Habineza

is a Researcher, Logistics Manager, and Translator with 10 years of experience supporting research on issues related to children and youth, education, gender, health, and reconciliation in Rwanda. Léon holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health with Honors from The Catholic University of Rwanda, he has working proficiency in English and French, and speaks Kinyarwanda with native fluency.

Luz Alcira Granada

is an expert on advocacy, child’s rights, communications for development, design, monitoring, and evaluation, development, and humanitarian assistance. She has a Master in Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis in the social sector, a specialist in leadership and social management, a specialist in community development, diploma in child and youth participation and children’s rights, diploma in Human Rights, and a bachelor degree in social work. Her native tongue is Spanish and she speaks English with professional proficiency.

Mathilde Guntzberger

is a child protection and women and girls’ empowerment practitioner and researcher with over 13 years’ international development experience. She has led research on the violence against women and children, including social norms analysis, and has expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods and evaluation, programme design, and capacity strengthening. She has provided technical consultancy services to UN agencies, governments, INGOs, and faith-based organisations in South and Southeast Asia and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Mathilde is passionate about projects generating insightful data that inform programme decision-making and participatory approaches to learning processes. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection. Mathilde is a native French speaker with English fluency. 

Nteranya Sanginga

holds Bachelors degree in Political Science with an African Studies concentration from Macalester College, USA. His thesis focused on the rehabilitation, reconciliation, and reintegration of former child soldiers in post-conflict communities. Sanginga then completed an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford. He has served as the Director of Programs for Future Africa, an organisation providing aspiring public sector leaders and social innovators with the knowledge, network and skills required to transform the African political economy. As Content Director for #CongoExcellence he worked on educational programs for Congolese Youth to nurture their potential to contribute to the development of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has also worked with the research centre Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Kenya Scholar’s Access Program (KenSAP), Tuition Aid Data Services (TADS), and immigration law company, Rivero Law LLC.

Ornella Barros

is a political scientist, originally from Colombia. She has over eight years’ experience in child rights, research, and advocacy with a focus on child protection and care, children’s participation, and child rights governance. She is a trainer, practitioner, evaluator, and advocate. Ornella has experience working with marginalised communities, children, and youth. Her work experience comprises diverse development and emergency contexts, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia, El Salvador, Greece, Mexico, Romania, and Tanzania. Ornella has collaborated with World Vision, The European Wergeland Centre, Terre des Hommes International Federation, Save the Children, Kindernothilfe, and Arigatou International. She holds a master’s degree in Human Rights from the University of Oslo. She speaks Spanish with native fluency, English with working proficiency, and French.

Simón Velásquez Matijasevic

is a highly accomplished Sociologist with over 2 years of social research experience, 1+ year as a university Professor, and 8+ years as a Teaching Assistant. Simón has achieved five Honours Distinctions, secured the Colfuturo's 2023 loan-scholarship, and attained top scores in the State Examination of Quality of Higher Education in Colombia. Co-author of one paper (Q2), two books, and one report, he has also been active involved as a speaker in two international academic events and assistant in various events. Simón demonstrates a high capacity for leadership, teamwork, orality, and project development. Starting in 2024, Simón has been accepted into the Master of Arts in Sociology (Quantitative Methods) at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Stella Motsi

is a child protection specialist with 15 years' experience in development and humanitarian work and holds a Master's degree in Developmental Studies, Bachelor's degree in Social Work and a Registered Managers Award.  Stella possesses knowledge and experience of International experience in Child Protection and Child Rights programming and research specializing in prevention, reporting and response to Violence against Children and Gender Based Violence.  She is currently the Country Director for Childline Zimbabwe managing over 400 qualified and intercultural staff members including volunteers.  She has managed programmes funded by various donors DFID, UNICEF, TDH, KNH, BMZ and USAID.

Stephanie Acker Hausman

is a strategy, communications, and policy expert, who has worked locally, nationally, and internationally on child protection and migration governance. She is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University. She has held leadership positions with the Bureau of Homeless Services, Emergency Shelter, and Housing for the Boston Public Health Commission, and spent several years with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Stephanie was a Policy Leader Fellowship at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance. Stephanie holds a bachelor’s in social work from Gordon College and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and was a United States Presidential Management Fellow.