Team Leader or Project Manager for English, Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries
Since 1986 I have worked as Team Leader / Project Manager / Project Coordinator in South and South-east Asia and Africa leading multidisciplinary teams, which have consisted of animiststs, atheists, buddhists, christians, hindus as well as muslims and included hundreds of village leaders, local politicians, academicians, NGO activists, development bankers, professional consultants, top government administrators, and other national level leaders.
Team Leader
Forestry Entrepreneurship and Joint Forest Management Project
January 2004 – June 2008
Mozambique
With this project the Mozambican government started actively promoting joint management of natural forest concessions by entrepreneurs in close cooperation with the local people who live in and from the forests. Among the main instruments are royalty reimbursements and small grants to villagers and credit funds with competitive interest rates to Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMSs) in the forestry sector. All project interventions are directed to support sustained forest management. As Team Leader I was specifically responsible for effective launching of the credit component and for facilitating investments and employment in forestry and forest industry, which contributes to poverty alleviation especially in the poorest rural areas of the country.
In early stages of the project my team also demonstrated to governmental leaders and international investors how vast potentials the country has for large scale forest plantations. They can be established where there are no forests today offering attractive opportunities for international investors. The first tree planting trials have started and sizeable investments are now in pipeline.
Team Leader/Community Development Advisor
Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project, Stage 2
July 1996 – July 2002
Bangladesh
The project had a total budget of $US 100 million of which the European Commission’s contribution was €15 million and the loan from IDA equaled 65 million SDR. My team supervised 9 civil works contractors which employed about 45,000 labourers constructing 170 km of coastal embankments. Local NGOs facilitated by my team helped 1,800 embankment settler families and 8,000 members of the Foreshore Forestry Groups trained by my team for vegetation establishment and foreshore afforestation with mangroves and other hardy species. The planting target was 4,700 ha on the foreshore and 1,900 ha on the embankments.
Project Coordinator
Forest Management and Conservation Project
January 1995 – June 1996
Lao P.D.R.
GET allocated $US 5 million for wildlife and protected areas conservation while IDA funded most of the procurement and FINNIDA (Finnish International Development Agency) the technical assistance. The main strategy was to empower and train the villagers to manage natural forests for their own and national benefit. About 90 villages with 4,000 families and 25,000 people have been included into the programme, which covers 200,000 ha.
Team Leader
Thai Forestry Sector Master Plan and its Implementation Preparatory Phase
July 1990 – December 1994
Thailand
I was in charge of managing and coordinating the work of all the 23 sub-teams consisting of more than 100 national and international experts representing various disciplines from anthropologists and economists to foresters and pulp and paper engineers. A part of the overall responsibility of project administration, policy analysis and formulation along with drafting of new forestry legislation to guide development alternatives for the formulation of long-term synchronized programmes for consideration by the government required my special attention.
Team Leader
Master Plan for the Forestry Sector project and
subsequent Project Implementation Preparatory Phase
January 1986 – June 1990
Nepal
Our team identified community forestry as the main strategy to develop the forestry sector in Nepal. When the Master Plan was completed and presented to donors, they committed half of all of the inputs needed for the entire forestry sector for implementation of the community forestry programme, which became a success. The Master Plan integrated 20 larger and 30 other forestry projects already initiated in Nepal and provided them an overall, long term policy, legal and financial frame. Several independent evaluators considered the Nepalese Master Plan as a model and it was used as such in early 1990’s for improving the NFAP concept.