2023 Executive Committee
Mr. Musa Ansumana Soko - Chair of the Executive Committee
WASH-Net [Sierra Leone]
Musa Ansumana Soko has over 15 years of experience implementing development initiatives aimed at peacebuilding, health systems strengthening, governance and incorporating policy influencing and capacity building for such interventions. Musa is a campaigner with vast experience in global advocacy and indeed, the Sustainable Development (SDGs). He is Chief Executive of the WASH-Network in Sierra Leone and as Youth Peace and Security Focal Point in addition to service as National Contact Point for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. After the Sierra Leonean civil war, Musa co-founded the Youth Partnership for Peace and Development, a youth-serving NGO that empowers vulnerable young people, women, and their communities to step forward for positive change.
Given the diversity of his work, he has been involved several global and local processes including the development of the African Ministers Council on Water’s Strategy for mainstreaming Youth in the sector, National Fragility Assessments as well as directly involved in the Sustainable Development Goals and its Voluntary National Review process in Sierra Leone. He served as Board Member of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), and between 2008 to 2012, he was African Advisor to UN-HABITAT; an advisory role focusing on urban youth issues and their participation in governance and decision-making.
His work in open governance and citizen’s participation is evidenced in what he currently does around social accountability, budget transparency and tracking while providing citizens a voice to be able to effectively engage and act.
He was further nationally recognised as an outstanding 50 Most Influential Young Sierra Leonean after receiving other awards such as the United States Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (2013) as a Community Solutions Alumni with IREX and the U.S Department of States in 2011.
Mr. Peter van Sluijs - CSPPS Coordinator
Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding [The Netherlands]
Peter van Sluijs is an Expert Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention employed by Cordaid; a Dutch development organisation which has its headquarters located in The Hague. He coordinates the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS). A global network of civil society organisations supporting peacebuilding efforts in fragile and conflict-affected settings. CSPPS supports civil society participation in the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS). Through CSPPS strategic and capacity assistance is provided in support of in-country interventions beneficial to amplifying the voice of civil society in relevant policy processes. At the global level, CSPPS coordinates lobby and advocacy efforts around conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and SDG16+.
Before joining Cordaid Mr. Van Sluijs has held various positions in international organisations (including UNDP, IUCN and WWF). His work has ranged across poverty reduction, development policy, knowledge management, governance, and environmental management. Mr. Van Sluijs holds a M.S. degree in Political Science from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Ms. Kirsten Meersschaert
International Alert Europe [The Netherlands]
Kirsten Meersschaert is a strategic advocate with nearly two decades’ experience in conflict prevention & resolution, international justice, and human rights. Kirsten currently serves as the first Executive Director of International Alert Europe, the Hague-based European headquarters of the 30+ year old peacebuilding organisation, International Alert. In this role, Kirsten works with key stakeholders – including the European Union, individual European states, and civil society – to strengthen peacebuilding policy and practice to ensure robust and holistic approaches to addressing conflict are pursued, including the need for intersectional conflict sensitivity in development, humanitarian, justice, investment, and climate mitigation initiatives. Prior to joining International Alert, Kirsten worked to promote and uphold human rights across the OSCE region, from supporting individual human rights defenders working in increasingly shrinking civic spaces to advocating for the full and effective implementation of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights. Kirsten also worked for over 10 years on the issue of (international) justice for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and environmental crimes, convening civil society through two global networks to strengthen national, regional, and global accountability legislation, frameworks, and institutions – such as the Responsibility to Protect principle, transitional justice mechanisms, ad hoc tribunals, and the International Criminal Court, among others – to prevent and address these crimes.
Mr. Julien Comlan Agbessi
Network of West African NGO Platforms (REPAOC) [Senegal]
Julien Agbessi is the REPAOC Regional Coordinator since September 2009 and has since been ensuring the implementation of the mission and action plans of his regional coalition of CSOs, the protection of human rights, the elimination of barriers to regional integration in West Africa within the framework of ECOWAS, the concretization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) as well as the monitoring of the achievement of international agendas and objectives such as the SDGs, those of CSPPS and IDPS, etc. Lately, the organisation has been focusing its energy on monitoring the security crisis situation in the region and has, for this, developed a project called "Regional Project for Community Resilience and Peacebuilding in West Africa". The organisation hopes that if the funding of €8,127,513 is quickly mobilised, civil society could contribute to reducing the vulnerability of millions of silent victims, including children and women, and to preventing the violent extremism in the other coastal countries on the Guinea Gulf, some of which are already experiencing cases at attacks. Julien Agbessi has extended experience from Togo and is a member of the Executive Committee since 2020
Ms. Anne Kristine Raunkiaer-Jensen
Council for International Conflict Resolution (RIKO) [Denmark]
In her current role, Kristine undertakes project management and provides technical support on Peaceful Change initiative's projects on Syria, Libya and the Swahili Coast (Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique). In CSPPS, Kristine represents the Danish organisation the Council for International Conflict Resolution (RIKO), for which she has previously served as Chair of the Board, seeking to advocate for the integration of conflict prevention and peacebuilding approaches into Danish foreign policy and development frameworks. Kristine has in-depth expertise on conflict sensitivity and has previously provided a range of analysis and advisory services to international assistance providers working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
Ms. Gwendolyn S. Myers
Messengers of Peace-Liberia (MOP) [Liberia]
Gwendolyn S. Myers has over ten years of experience working in Peace and non-violence education among, in and out of school youth. She was selected as European Commission and One Young World 2021 Peace Ambassador and Fellow of the UN Global Executive Leadership Programme For Sustainable Development 2021-2022 by the United Nations System Staff College-Turin-Italy, Hertie School in Berlin, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy Executive Education in Singapore. She’s a Certified FBA Young Mediator, Global Peace Activist and youngest Board Member ever at Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI). Recognized as Time Magazine 2019 -Top Eight Young Reformers Across the Globe Shaping the World and 2019-Top Seven-African Women Breaking Barriers in Peacebuilding in Africa by CARROT CO. (FrontlineWomen).
She’s the Founder & Executive Director (2008-Present) of a non-profit, youth-led peace-building organisation, Messengers of Peace- Liberia Inc managing over one thousand five hundred Young Volunteer Peace Messengers.
Ms. Myers was selected and featured as the overall winner of the President’s Awards 2020 addition to City, University of London gallery of Extraordinary Women achieving the extraordinary since 1894. She gained national recognition as one of the 40 Most influential women part of a historic Mosaic Painting entitled: The Liberian Voices who remained trailblazers and placed at the National Museum of Liberia, 16th January, 2023.
Gwendolyn has an MA in International Politics and Human Rights (2019) from City, University of London and an MA in Reconciliation and Peacebuilding (2020) from the University of Winchester, United Kingdom and postgraduate certificates in Peacebuilding Leadership from the Eastern Mennonite University, VA, USA & 2015/2016 Fellow of the Center for Women, Faith and Leadership (CWL) at the Institute for Global Engagement in collaboration with Pepperdine University –USA
Ms. Pascasie Barampama
Le Réseau Femmes et Paix [Burundi]
Pascasie Barampama has been a human rights activist, and in particular a women's rights activist, for over 26 years. In 1996, following the consequences of the 1993 crisis in Burundi, she founded the Association of Women and Girls without Professions (AFFM). She is a founding member and has for more than ten years led a network of women's associations called the Women and Peace Network, created in 1999. It is committed to contributing to the efforts to rebuild Burundi, consolidate peace and relaunch socio-economic development by involving the effective and equal participation of women. The Women and Peace Network is the focal point organisation of the CSPPS in Burundi. She is also a founding member of the Women, Peace and Security platform, which brings together six CSOs and is at the origin of the advocacy for the implementation of Resolution 1325 in Burundi. She is also the founder and president of the Burundi Chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom since 2018.
Ms. Elizabeth (Liz) Hume
Alliance for Peacebuilding [United States]
Elizabeth (Liz) Hume is the Executive Director at the Alliance for Peacebuilding. She is an international lawyer and a conflict expert with more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions in bilateral, multilateral institutions and NGOs. She has extensive experience in policy and advocacy and overseeing sizeable and complex peacebuilding programs in conflict-affected and fragile states in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.
From 1997-2001, Liz was seconded by the US Department of State to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo as the Chief Legal Counsel and Head of the Election Commission Secretariats. In these positions, she was responsible for developing the legal framework and policies in support of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and UN Resolution 1244. After 9/11, Liz worked for the International Rescue Committee in Pakistan and Afghanistan where she established and managed the Protection Department for Afghan refugees and returning IDPs. Starting in 2004, she served in leadership positions and helped establish the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation at USAID developing programs and policies to improve the USG’s ability to address the causes of violent deadly conflict. In 2007, Liz was the Chief of Party for Pact where she managed a USAID funded conflict resolution and governance program in Ethiopia. She also served as a Technical Director at FHI 360 where she managed a USAID funded peacebuilding and governance program in Senegal with a focus on the Casamance one of Africa’s longest-running civil wars.
Liz is also an experienced mediator, and she is a frequent guest lecturer and author on conflict analysis and peacebuilding in conflict-affected and fragile states.
Liz holds a BA from Boston College, a JD from Vermont Law School, and a MA in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding from California State University, Dominguez Hills. She lives in Falls Church City, VA with her husband in a much cleaner and quieter house since their twin girls went to University.
Mr. Seco Sori Camará
Voz di Paz - Iniciativa para a Consolidação da Paz e Desenvolvimento na Guiné-Bissau [Guinée-Bissau]
Seco Sori Camará is trained in Sociology and Demography by the University of Abderahmen Mira of Béjaia - Algeria. He was a researcher with the non-governmental organisation Voz di Paz - Initiative pour la Consolidation de la Paix et Développement en Guinée-Bissau and a professor at the Centre technico-profissional de l'administration et Secrétariat. He has also been Director of the department of census and cadastre of poor and vulnerable people at the Ministry of Women, Family and Social Protection for 11 years. Member of the Steering Committee for the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 in 2010 Seco Sori Camará worked for UN Women as a gender focal point. He participated several times as a member of the group for the elaboration of reports concerning human rights and other abuses made in Guinea-Bissau and as a member state of many sub-regional and international organisations. Currently, he is the focal point for the Project: Prevention of natural resource conflicts related to pastoralism and transhumance in the Bafatá and Gabú regions, as well as the focal point for the CSPPS Platform.