Associate Experts

Roderick Ackerman – United Kingdom, Germany | ✉ roderick@evalutility.com

Roderick Ackermann is an evaluation, policy research, and strategy development consultant with 28 years of international experience covering the EU, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Africa. His work covers justice, security, transparency and accountability, local government, migration, and inclusion of marginalised groups in decision making.
Roderick has led and contributed to many evaluation, research, institutional assessment, and strategy development assignments for international organisations, European institutions, bilateral donors, and NGOs. He also supports organisations with the development of theories of change, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and the development of systems and tools to measure change, with a focus on leveraging existing data wherever possible.
He is experienced in the use of Python for data analysis. He is director of Evalutility Ltd.

Lusine Aleksandryan – Armenia | ✉ ldaarmenia@aldaintranet.org

Lusine Aleksandryan has been involved in the civil society sector since 2006 while joining “Women for Development” NGO and working with different stakeholders on community development issues, promoting Peace Education and Peace Building in the schools of target communities. She has also supported several trainings/meetings of capacity building and experience sharing. While joining the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA) Lusine mainly worked on projects focusing on local authorities and civil society empowerment, cross-border cooperation, youth and women involvement in decision-making processes. As a foundation director of ALDA, she was invited by the Council of Europe and CONCORD as a speaker and an expert on local democracy and civil society engagement. Lusine has also cooperated with the OSCE election observation missions in Armenia. Since 2018 she has been involved in evaluations implemented by Blomeyer & Sanz. She is fluent in Armenian and English.

Rolf Bergs – Germany | ✉ rolfb@prac.de

Rolf Bergs, Dr., FeRSA, studied political science and economics at the University of Frankfurt (Ph.D. in political science and research semester at the SOAS London); he further holds a British Diploma of Higher Education in Economics. Between 1989 and 1991 Rolf worked as a consultant with Environ GmbH, Frankfurt. Since 1991, he has been partner and senior researcher at Policy Research & Consultancy (PRAC). Rolf’s thematic focus is the evaluation of European cohesion and rural policies and pre-accession programmes. Besides, he is engaged in empirical research on EU regional policies and economic and monetary integration; and empirical analysis on regional innovation, the spatial economy. His present interest is econometric analysis with novel spatial datasets, such as night satellite images or micro-spatial grid data to explore urban scaling laws, such as Zipf’s law or urban imperviousness. Rolf is fluent in German and English and can communicate y French and Italian.

Andrei Brighidin – Moldova | ✉ andrei.brighidin@gmail.com

Andrei Brighidin holds an LLM degree in International Development Law and Human Rights from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He has outstanding expertise in the area of evaluation, governance, human rights, equality and non-discrimination. Familiar with OECD, CoE and EU evaluation policy, Andrei Brighidin conducted domestic and international evaluations of complex interventions focused on good governance, equality and non-discrimination, human rights, civil society development.

Elona Dhembo – Albania | ✉ edhembo@yahoo.co.uk

(PhD) Elona Dhëmbo is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Tirana where she reaches research methods and social policy courses since 2005. Besides her academic work, she engages with various inter/national, governmental, and non-governmental bodies as a researcher, consultant, and advisor and has extensive working experiences as researcher and evaluator in Albania and the Balkans in the areas of social policy, social protection, social inclusion, and equal opportunities. In the past, Elona worked for the Swiss Government supported Regional Research Promotion Program in the Balkans. In recent years, she has grown a particular interest in issues of migration and social protection.

Karim Erzini – Portugal, Morocco

(PhD in Biological Oceanography) Is the head of the Fisheries, Biodiversity and Conservation Group of the Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR) at the University of Algarve. He has more than 25 years experience teaching and researching in fisheries, as well as in the evaluation of projects, programmes and institutes. His mother tongue is Arabic, and he is fluent in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.

Tatjana Popović– Western Balkans | ✉ tatjana.ndcserbia@gmail.com

Tatjana Popović, MA in Peace Studies, is an experienced conflict resolution trainer, peace education practitioner, and certified mediator with over 20 years of experience in the Western Balkans, working on cross-regional reconciliation, multi-ethnic dialogue, and peace education in formal and non-formal settings. Her work integrates gender perspectives and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda into peacebuilding and educational initiatives. In 2024, she co-edited the GPPAC Gender Toolkit to strengthen gender-responsive conflict resolution tools. In April -May 2024, she served as a local consultant for Blomeyer & Sanz, conducting field research in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina for the final evaluation of the project “Amplifying Voices of Women Affected by War-related SGBV in the Western Balkans,” deepening her expertise in addressing gender-based violence, legal frameworks, and public awareness. Tatjana has also contributed to the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of long-term peace education and reconciliation projects, including Cross-border Peace Education, Educational Institutions Building Peace (IFA zivik, Germany), and the Schools Cooperation project between Lillehammer and Bujanovac municipalities, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tamuna Gvelesiani – Georgia | ✉ t_gvelesiani@yahoo.com

(PhD in Applied Social Psychology) Tamari Gvelesiani has over eight years of research and Monitoring & Evaluation experience in Georgia and Eastern partnership countries. She has been actively involved in projects funded by USAID, FCDO, and NED that focus on strengthening Georgian Parliament, Local Government, and Civil Society sectors. She has been instrumental in the successful execution of baseline, annual, and final evaluations for various programs. In addition, Tamari has made significant contributions as a Local Research Expert for the Council of Europe (CoE) and The Research Base/British Council in Georgia. She speaks fluent Georgian and English and has working knowledge of Russian.

Michael Hammer – Germany | ✉ michael@rocsalt.org

Michael Hammer, founder and coordinator of the ROCsalt network. He is an experienced director, manager and organisational development leader of not-for-profit organisations working in the field of human rights/ conflict transformation, global governance, civil society capacity building, and the broader environmental advocacy policy. Since 2017 he is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Keele University’s School for Social, Political and Global Studies with a focus on accountability, governance and regulation of not-for-profit organisations and social movements in the context of sustainable development. He is fluent in German, English, French and Dutch.

Mikel Insausti – Spain | ✉ mikel.insausti@gmail.com

Mikel Insausti is an international development and environment economist with over 24 years of professional experience in public policy (environment, trade & investment, sustainability, government transparency and accountability), as a consultant and as the CEO of an Ecocentre in Northern Spain. Having worked in WWF in developing countries for 10 years, Mikel has also delivered assignments for the European Parliament, the European Commission, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the London School of Economics, the UK’s Foreign Office, Universidad de Buenos Aires, World Trade Organisation, and various UN bodies. Mikel is fluent in English, Spanish, Basque, Portuguese and French.

Olha Krasovska – Ukraine | ✉ olha.krasovska@gmail.com

(Ph.D. in Economics) Olha is a researcher and evaluator, has approximately 15 years’ experience of designing, implementing, managing and evaluating national and international projects in the fields of decentralisation, local self-government and local democracy, regional economic policy, SME development, R&D and innovation, green transition. Olha is a Board Member of Ukrainian Evaluation Association, member of British and European Evaluation Societies. She has extensive experience in evaluation of programmes and projects, including for the Council of Europe, OSCE, European Commission, SDC, Sida, ILO, DANIDA, USAID and others. She speaks Ukrainian, English and Russian.

Filippa Lofstrom – Sweden | ✉ filippa.lofstrom@hotmail.com

Filippa Lofstrom is a consultant and researcher working on a variety of policy areas and specialising in evaluation and impact assessment studies. Filippa has significant experience in EU public policy and has worked with various DGs of the European Commission, its executive agencies, and the European Parliament. She holds a Master’s degree in European Studies from King’s College London, where she focused on human rights and migration, and a BA in Foreign Languages and Cultures from La Sorbonne-Paris. A native speaker of Swedish, Filippa also speaks English, French and Italian fluently, as well as intermediate Thai.

Anna Manoudi – Greece | ✉ anmanoudi@gmail.com

Harriet Mensah – Ghana, Benin | ✉ yaamensa@gmail.com

Harriet, a highly skilled professional in international development, holds an Executive Diploma in Gender and Rural Development, an MSC in Project Management, and a bachelor’s degree in management with Computing. With over 20 of experience, she has collaborated with prestigious organizations such as UNHCR, USAID, UNFPA, and Mercy Corps, showcasing proficiency in program and project management. Her expertise encompasses various data collection methods, research, evaluation, performance integration, compliance guidance, budget planning, and evaluation design. Known for her strong leadership and analytical skills, Harriet is widely respected across multiple sectors for her valuable contributions. Harriet is fluent in English, French

Andrzej Mierzwicki – Poland | ✉ amierzwicki@integration.org

(PhD. / Eng.) Has studied mechanical engineering and management information systems. He has 23 years’ experience in administration and financial management of projects in Poland and abroad. He has been working for 10 years as an expert, in monitoring and evaluation of projects focused on SME support programs, education and financial controlling. He has experience in the international procurement. He is fluent in German, English, Russian and Polish. Andrzej is fluent in Polish and English.

Shqipe Mjekiqi – Kosovo | ✉ mjekiqish@gmail.com

(PhD in Political Sciences, Dublin) Shqipe holds a Master’s degree in Politics and Government in the European Union from the London School of Economics. She serves as the Managing Director and Consultant at One Consulting, based in Prishtina. She boasts over 15 years of experience working across government, academia and consulting sectors. Shqipe’s professional pursuits are predominantly centered around policy research and evaluations. Her research interests are broad-ranging, covering topics such as European integration, regional cooperation, elections, and security-related issues; in particular, countering violent-extremism. Previously she has served as Political Advisor on European Integration to the President of Kosovo (2008-2010), and Senior Political Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo (2015-2017). She also teaches public policy courses at University for Business and Technology (UBT) in Prishtina. She is fluent in English and Albanian and possesses limited proficiency of Serbian and French.

Nigel Peacock – United Kingdom | ✉ napfisheries@gmail.com

Nigel Peacock’s experience of the broad spectrum of fisheries and aquaculture disciplines includes feasibility assessment, and investors due diligence, but market and trade analysis have underpinned much of his work latterly, stemming from a market orientated approach to development. This has encompassed a wide geographic spread, involving working in over 100 countries globally – in Africa, the Americas, Europe & FSU, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. His clients have included major development agencies – World Bank, European Commission, European Parliament, regional development banks as well as a wide range of commercial enterprises and private investors.

Sabrina Persiano – United Kingdom | ✉ sabrina@playtherapycentre.co.uk

Kim Stobberup – Denmark, Portugal | ✉ kstobberup@gmail.com

(PhD) Kim has studied marine biology and fisheries assessment and has worked together with Blomeyer & Sanz on various fisheries related assignments. Kim has 20 years´ experience including activities in research, the private sector and international development, which he has carried out in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. His primary focus is in fisheries policy and management as well as evaluation of fisheries projects and international agreements. He is fluent in Danish, English, Portuguese and Spanish.