Member of the Month - April 2008

Sonja Andjelkovic-Al Amry

Freelance Consultant for Peace and Conflict in Development Cooperation
[WIIS Member Since May 2007]

My academic background is a Master in Islamic Studies with a minor in political science from the Free University in Berlin/Germany. Most of my professional experience I gained in the Middle East, especially in Yemen, where I lived for 3 years. Yemen is a fragile country with many overlapping conflict lines on different levels, a fragmented society and a parallel tribal system that often contradicts the government and its regulations. In Yemen I worked as a programme director for an international NGO and as a consultant for the German Development Cooperation. As programme director I was in charge of programmatic issues (for example the design of projects and the strategic planning) and of the NGO management including public relations, fundraising and human resources issues. One of the most interesting and still ongoing projects of this NGO was a conflict prevention project in the tribal areas in the North of Yemen. This project was funded by USAID and has the aim to promote non-violent conflict resolution methods and to gather information on the rich local knowledge of peace building traditions. After this post, I started working as a freelance consultant for conflict prevention in development cooperation.

Consultant
What do I do as a consultant? Mostly I am asked to analyze the socio-political and economical situation in a country in relation to a project or programme and to assess the conflict-relevance of the situation on the project and vice versa. I use the outcome of my analysis as a basis for recommendations for my client, who is in charge of a project or programme on how to include conflict-sensitivity into the project cycle. In order to do this I travel the country of my assignment (last year it was again Yemen and Palestine), usually for 2 weeks to conduct interviews with relevant stakeholders. Then I feed this information into a desk analysis that I have prepared beforehand. The sector I am currently focusing on is the water sector. Water, being a scarce resource in the Middle East, could lead to (violent) conflicts and exacerbate problems in fragile political environments. Therefore water-related conflicts are becoming a topic of increasing international interest. I am specializing in this specific area not only through my practical work but also through my PhD thesis, which I will start working on in October. As I have compiled a lot of empirical data already I will be attending international conferences in summer this year to present my research, for example at the WISC Global International Studies Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia in July and at the 4th Environmental Forum in Fez, Morocco in September.

I am working on my postgraduate studies at the moment (peace studies, German distance learning university and sustainable development at the University of London, also distance learning). My next assignments will be Egypt and Lebanon and maybe Afghanistan later this year.

Trainer
I also work as a trainer for expatriate experts to prepare them for their life and work in Muslim countries. Many of my participants want to know how to deal with conflicts with their local counterparts, many want to understand what Islam is, how Muslims think and how this relates to their projects. In these trainings I teach the experts through role-plays and exercises how to communicate and act culturally sensitive to avoid conflicts and failure of project efforts and how to cooperate with Muslims successfully. My plans in future are to contribute to peace building by supporting my clients, international organizations and development agencies in the design and implementation of conflict-sensitive projects and also in the reform of relevant policies.

Family Life
I have two kids 10 and 6, boy and girl, both enrolled in the John F. Kennedy American School in Berlin, which they are very much enjoying. I spend my free time with them and my husband discovering the woods or visiting exhibitions, museums or simply reading together, playing chess or cooking.

For more information about me please check www.dialog-international.com. If you would like to know more about successful consulting on conflict prevention or about my approaches and work please contact me at saalamry@dialog-international.com.

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