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Panel Briefing by UNDPO: The Evolving Nature of DDR
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Details
Those who cannot join in person are welcome to join on Zoom.
Zoom link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/93445598462?pwd=MFIzb0NTczFOOFUzU3VSdmxWQnlVZz09
About the Speakers:
Thomas Kontogeorgos possesses more than 24 years of service and experience in peace and security, civil affairs, program development, humanitarian work, stabilization initiatives, conflict resolution and mediation, DDR, community development and outreach, peacebuilding, civil-military cooperation, and public administration. Notably, he spent more than 17 years in field settings with UN and non-UN entities (NGOs & IGOs) in different managerial positions. He has been serving with UN DPO missions, as Civil Affairs Officer (UNMIK, UNIFIL), Senior DDR Officer / CVR Program Officer - OiC for the Integrated office of DSRSG/RC/HC (MINUSTAH) and as a Chief of the DDR Section in New York HQ.
In his current capacity, Mr. Thomas Kontogeorgos, is providing strategic guidance 12 staff members that backstop over twenty missions, including Haiti, Somalia, DRC, Mali, Cameroon, CAR, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, and Libya. He is overseeing and advising on programmes worth US $25 million in peacekeeping operations and providing support through a team to Special Political Missions and Member States involved in DDR processes. Previously, in Haiti, he managed an innovative second-generation DDR programme (so called Community Violence Reduction), whose lessons learned are now applied in other missions.
As Chief of the DDR Section, he co-chairs, together with UNDP, the Inter-Agency Working Group of DDR, bringing together 27 UN departments, agencies, funds and programmes, and World Bank. Through this role, he is providing strategic guidance and innovation on the new UN Integrated DDR Standards (IDDRS – UNs approach on DDR).
Ms. Akossiwa Lea Koudjou currently serves as Policy and Planning Officer in the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Section, in the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, in the Department of Peace Operations at the United Nations. She is the Mali/Team Leader and covers issues related to West Africa and the Sahel. She is the section’s focal point for issues related to the reinsertion and reintegration of ex-combatants as well as Transitional Justice. Prior to joining the DDR Section in New York, she served as Reintegration Officer with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), as DDR officer and Micro-Projects Programme Manager with the United Nations Operation in Cote d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and worked closely with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). She also worked as Field Coordinator with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). She was deployed on short-term assignments in the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) and in the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). She started working on DDR, peacebuilding, and sustaining peace issues since 2002. She holds a master’s degree in International Affairs and is fluent in Ewe, English, and French.
Anne Novak currently serves as an Associate DDR Programme Management Officer in the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Section, in the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI), in the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) at the United Nations in New York. She covers
Somalia and coordinates the work of the Inter-Agency Working Group on DDR
and the revision of the Integrated DDR Standards. She also works on thematic
files, including countering and preventing violent extremism. Prior to joining the Section, Anne worked as an Associated Political Affairs Officer in the United Nations Secretariat Department for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) on the Afghanistan Desk from October 2020 to 2022. In 2020, she worked as an advisor to the peace and stabilization division of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin in 2020 where she advised on different dialogue formats for peace process negotiations. 2017 to 2020, she worked as a conflict and political analyst in Afghanistan. Based in Kabul with frequent travels to different field offices, she drafted analyses and advised the Country Director and Risk Management Director of the German governmental development agency (GIZ). Anne graduated from SIPA with a Master in International Affairs in 2017 with a specialization in International Conflict Resolution and a concentration in International Security Policy.
Hosted By
EPD Concentration
Co-hosted with: Economic and Political Development Concentration (OWNER), International Conflict Resolution Specialization, International Organization/UN Studies Specialization
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