Jakob Kirkemann Boesen is a senior international expert with extensive leadership and practical experience in human rights, civil society, democratization, and governance. He has held leadership positions in ActionAid Denmark and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and has a solid foundation in international development partnerships, programming and management.

Jakob has more than 20 years of experience working in partnerships focused on human rights, democratisation and public participation, civil society, and good governance in Europe, Asia, and Africa. His core expertise includes support to network and alliance building, human rights based approaches, movement building, strengthening of independent governance institutions and state and civil society dialogue. He has supported both state institutions, international organisations, and civil society organisations with governance, strategy formulation, programme management, learning, capacity building, partnership development, funding mechanisms, review and learning. 

He has authored and co-authored publications on human rights-based approaches and civil society partnerships.

Core Areas

• Freedom Rights including freedom of speech, assembly and association
• Democratisation, democratic governance and public participation
• Civil society, public participation and cooperation between state and non-state actors
• Civil society as an actor in democratization and development
• Engagement of youth, movements and informal civil society actors
• National Human Rights and Ombudsman Institutions
• Human rights-based approach (HRBA), gender mainstreaming, equal treatment and non-discrimination
• Humanitarian partnerships and localisation
• Civil Society and Development Partnerships
• Organisational development and capacity-building

Expertise and Services

• Leadership and general management
• Strategic planning and development
• Organisational assessment and audits
• Organisational coaching and capacity development
• Programme scoping, situational and contextual analysis
• Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, review and evaluation
• Partnership identificaition, development & management
• Process and programme management, facilitation and support
• Course/seminar/workshop design, facilitation and evaluation
• Development of learning and review processes
• Development of organisational or programmatic approaches, systems and guidelines

Country Experience

Asia and the Pacific: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, China, Nepal & Timor-Leste
Europe and Eurasia: Bosnia, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,  Turkey, Ukraine
Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Yemen
Sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Languages

English: Fluent
Danish: Native