Esraa Abdel-Fattah

Esraa Abdel Fattah is a prominent Egyptian human rights activist. In 2008 she set up a Facebook page against the regime that rapidly gained thousands of followers. Known popularly as ‘Facebook Girl’, Esra was active on internet, on Tahrir Square and in the media during the demonstrations of January 2011. She continues to actively promote democracy and human rights. At the moment she is Media Director of the Eqyptian Democratic Academy, which trains young people in the use of media. ArabianBusiness.com nominated her as one of the most powerful Arab women of 2011.

Mekka Abdulgaber

Mekka Abdulgaber is the president of the foundation VOND, the Netherlands-Darfur women Foundation. Mekka tries to improve the position of women in Sudan in general and in Darfur in particular through local self-help projects and trainings.

Eveline Aendekerk

Eveline is director of dance4life, the organization that mobilizes young people worldwide to push back the spread of HIV and AIDS and to strengthen SRHR. Before dance4life she was director at Lost Boys and had several functions at KPMG. Besides that she lived in Bolivia and worked there with teenagers, which gave her the inspiration to work with young people and leadership.

Karel Arnaut

Dr Karel Arnaut is researcher at Max Planck Institute (Göttingen).  His worked on student and youth movements, political and cultural participation, and the restructuring of public spaces in Africa and Europe especially in Ivory Coast. Many of his publications are available in Politique Africaine, American Ethnologist and  Africa & Development.

Gerard van Balsfoort

Gerard van Balsfoort is president of the Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association (PFA). This organization internationally represents the interests of nine European trawler companies and strives towards a sustainable fishing industry. Before working at PFA, Gerard van Balsfoort was active in several positions at the Dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries.

Dick Benschop

CEO Shell Netherlands.

Thijs Berman

Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Labour Party.

Bas Bijlsma

Bas Bijlsma is staff member ‘mining in Africa’ at Niza. Niza is a development organization that strives for just economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bas frequently cooperates with local African communities who experience  the adverse effects of mining. He is also concerned with influencing policy making around raw materials in the Netherlands in Europe.

Sylvestre Bwira

Congelese human rights activist and refugee Sylvestre Bwira. Sylvestre was kidnapped after he had written an open letter to President Kabila. He was tortured and injected with an unknown substance, before he was left for dead in the jungle. He was found and saw the opportunity to flee to the Netherlands. Today, he is here on Africaday to tell his story.

Ingrid de Caluwé

Member of the Dutch parliament for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Tineke Ceelen

Director at Stichting Vluchteling.

Anna Chojnacka

Co-founder 1%CLUB.

Job Cohen

Parliamentary leader of the Dutch Labour Party.

René Cuperus

Political ideologist and columnist.

Ton Dietz

Ton Dietz is a Human Geographer with a special interest in rural development, pastoralism and the impact of climate change. He has been Professor in Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam since 1995 and will remain in that position until 1 July 2012. On 1 May 2010 Prof. Dr. Ton Dietz became Director of the African Studies Centre and is also Professor in the Study of African Development at Leiden University.

Sjoera Dikkers

Member of the Dutch Parliament for the Dutch Labour Party.

Bob van Dillen

Policy Officer at Cordaid.

Martin Dorsman

Martin Dorsman is Director at Royal association of Netherlands Shipowners (KNVR) He has extensive knowledge of and experience in governmental policy making, focusing on fiscal maritime policy and international maritime policy making.

Gibril Faal

Business Advisor and Founder of RemitAid.

Arjan el Fassed

Arjan El Fassed is a Dutch member of Parliament for the Green Party. This year, he was awarded Fair Politician of the Year, due to his efforts for more fair and coherent Dutch policy towards developing countries. As a member of Parliament, he focuses on Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation. He also actively lobbied for more fair resource policies.

Nadia Gombra

Owner at Interliaise.

Allert van den Ham

Chief executive at SNV.

Arjan Hehenkamp

Arjan Hehenkamp is director of Doctors Without Borders in The Netherlands. He has worked for the organization since 1992, and has been director since June 1st, 2011. To Hehenkamp medical emergency aid remains an urgent cause in many countries, especially when there are disasters happening that don’t make the front page. His goal is to reach more people in countries that hardly have aid organizations, to provide emergency aid.

Kirsten van den Hul

Kirsten van den Hul is The Change Agent. Trained as a Sovietologist and Arabist, she facilitates participatory change for a wide range of clients, from corporate to non-profit. In addition, she writes a weekly column for Dutch daily AD and was appointed UN Women's Representative in 2011.

Ewout Irrgang

Member of the Dutch Parliament for the Socialist Party.

Stella Ismael

Stella Ismael is president of the foundation African Sky. Originally Stella is from Somalia en from the Netherlands she tries and succeeds to improve the position of Somali Women in the Dutch society as well as women in the Somali Society.

Lutz Jacobi

Lutz Jacobi has been a member of Parliament for the Dutch Labour party since 2006. Here, she is actively involved with Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment. In 2009 she was elected Green Politician of the Year by nature conservation organization ‘Natuurmonumenten’.

Bram Janssen

Filmmaker and photographer.

Rowland Jide-Macaulayn

Pastor Rowland Jide Macaulayn is an openly gay Christian Theologian.

Joke van Kampen

Director at SWET.

Nanno Kleiterp

Before he was appointed as CEO, he was responsible for FMO’s risk-bearing profile as Chief Investment Officer from 2000. From 1987–2000, he held a number of positions within FMO, including Chief Finance Office, Regional Manager Latin America and Manager Small Enterprises Fund.
Nanno Kleoterp studied sociological economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Groningen and graduated in 1979. He is vice chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Royal Dutch Tuberculoses Foundation and member of the supervisory board of de Waal Foundation. Nanno Kleiterp is married and has two children.

Bert Koenders

Bert Koenders was this year appointed as UN Secretary General representative in The Ivory Coast. He is also the former Dutch Minister for International Development.

Princess Kofa

Successful entrepreneur from Liberia.

Jan Kooijman

In 2010 actor and presenter Jan Kooijman became an ambassador to dance4life at the end of 2010, the organization which mobilizes young people in almost 30 countries to push back the spread of HIV and AIDS. In May 2011 he travelled to Zimbabwe to see with his own eyes how dance4life works.

Ad Koppejan

Member of the Dutch parliament for the Christian Democratic Appeal.

Bram Lammers

Photographer i.a. The Times Newspaper, South Africa.

Arthur Larok

Arthur Larok is the Director of Programmes of the Uganda National NGO Forum, a national platform providing a reflection, learning and action space for NGOs who agree to collectively pursue mutual interest issues in governance and development. He is civil society activist with a passion for work on governance, rights and democratization.

Josephine Lemonyan

Works at SNV.

Judith Madigan

Judith Madigan is director of BrandOutLoud, a Dutch non-profit organization that provides tailor-made branding & communications to local aid organizations worldwide. They believe powerful imagery is the key to successful communication: visualize to persuade.
Judith’s expertise comes in usefully when we look at how emergency aid in Africa is communicated towards the Dutch audience.

Obadiah Mailafa

Chef de Cabinet of ACP.

Eco Matser

Coordinator Climate, Energy and Development at Hivos.

Anniek Mauser

Head of Sustainability at Unilever Benelux.

Judith Merkies

Judith Merkies is Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and is seated in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) on behalf of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). She deals with everything that has to do with a healthy and sustainable climate. Besides being an MEP, Judith Merkies is member of the PvdA executive, Brussels section since 2005. Previously, Judith Merkies was MEDIA programme manager at the European Commission, director of the Federation of Film Makers and executive manager at the European Music Office

Jarreth Merz

Merz is a Swiss born actor, director and producer. He grew up in Ghana, Germany and Switzerland and speaks five languages fluently. He is known for his portrayal of Simon of Cyrene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and his recurring role as Charles Baruani in ER. Merz has worked extensively in film, television and theater. Most recently, he directed and produced The Soul of Ashanti for the Africa Channel in Los Angeles and Mousy Brown, a narrative short. He is currently working on a bio pic about the life of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Kasha Nabagesera

Kasha Nabagesera is fighting for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights in Uganda. She is the founder and director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, one of the leading organisations for improving gay rights in Uganda. She has received world fame, after winning the Martin Ennals Award this year.

Femke Nagel

Femke Nagel is oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Netherlands. She is project manager of a campaign that stimulates Dutch supermarkets to sell more sustainable fish products. Femke Nagel  studied policy and organizational sciences and has worked in business before starting at Greenpeace in 2006.

Christian Nana

Christian Steve Nana alias Scor.pi.o is a Cameroonian rap-artist who has worked on the international cross-media project Surprising Europe. The Surprising Europe project wants to contribute to the debate about migration from Africa to Europe, and create awareness about the real life of Africans in Europe. Info: www.surprisingeurope.com / www.projectnana.com

Seada Nourhussen

Editor Africa for the Dutch newspaper Trouw.

Ametepe Nugloze

Ametepe Nugloze, I was born in Lomé (Togo) and is studying Management Economy and Law at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) Having a bi-cultural background, he observed how both cultures can progressively help one and other. His ambition is therefore to help develop sustainable entrepreneurial solutions for both cultures and their environment.

Bram van Ojik

Director DSO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ragia Omran

Ragia Omran is an activist, human rights lawyer and chairwoman of the New Woman Foundation. The NWF is a non-governmental feminist organization. Their mission is the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in society, whether economic, social, cultural, political or in legal systems. Ragia is also a co-founder of the ‘No To Militairy Trials Campaign’.

Hans Opschoor

Hans Opschoor has been in environmental and ecological economics since 1971. From 1978 onward he has specialised in international aspects of these fields, especially North-South ones. He has worked and lived in Southern Africa (Botswana) and been involved in projects in India and China. In terms of topics he has, since his parttime retirement, focused on the economics of Climate Change, and Environment and Poverty. In addition to that, he has a strong interest in scientific/academic co-operation in research and capacity development in a North-South-South (or any other permutation) context.

Yannick du Pont

Director at SPARK.

Jan Pronk

Jan Pronk is a Professor of Theory and Practice of International Development at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He is also a Dutch politician and diplomat who has served three terms as Minister of Development Cooperation and one term as Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment in the Dutch parliament for the Partij van de Arbeid between 1973 and 2002.

Michel Rademaker

Michel Rademaker is director and senior policy analyst of the Hague centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). Michel Rademaker has worked for the Dutch Defence Ministry and at research institute TNO. At the HCSS he examines the strategic consequences of global resource scarcity. Furthermore, he is chairman of the Dutch Platform for Material Scarcity.

Brian Raftopoulos

Professor Brian Raftopoulos is a leading Zimbabwean scholar and activist. He currently chairs the Zimbabwe Institute, which is a partner of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). He also is Director of Research and Advocacy in the Solidarity Peace Trust and published widely on Zimbabwean history, politics, and economics.

Ruerd Ruben

Director Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) at Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Brahim Sadeghi

Freelance journalist and presenter.

Abdi Samatar

Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar chairs the University of Minnesota's Geography Department and has worked widely on development, social capital and ethnicity in the Horn of Africa. He was a Fulbright scholar in Ethiopia and Botswana and previously served as an advisor to South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council.

Judith Sargentini

Judith Sargentini is delegation leader of the Dutch Green Party ‘GroenLinks’ in the European Parliament. She is involved in the dossiers fair trade and human rights. Therefore, she is also actively involved in European raw materials policies. Previously, Judith Sargentini chairwoman of the Green Party in Amsterdam.

Jan-Willem Scheijgrond

Jan-Willem Scheijgrond is senior Director Environment, Health & Safety at the Philips Corporate Sustainability Office. In this function, he is concerned with Philips’ environmental and sustainability policy. He also keeps in contact with several NGO’s and political organizations.

Michel Scholte

Founder of Noen, The New Silk Road.

Jorim Schraven

Jorim Schraven is Manager of the Financial Institutions Africa department at FMO. This department is responsible for taking Financial Sector risk in Africa through debt and mezzanine transactions as well as for providing Capacity Development assistance. Previously Jorim Schraven was Head of Retail at Clear Capital Ltd., an equity research and advisory firm based in London. He also worked as Economist at the European Central Bank and held various positions at the Dutch Central Bank. He holds an MA in Economics and Management from Oxford University and an MSc in Microeconomics and Finance from Toulouse University.

Nico Schrijver

Member of the Dutch Senete for the Dutch Labour Party.

Rianne Spit

Journalist and editor Pauw & Witteman

Geoffrey Ssebaggaia

From the Uganda Land Alliance.

Mararo Stanislas

Dr Mararo B. Stanislas was graduated PhD in History at Indiana University/Bloomington. He worked as lecturer in DR Congo. His research focused on Colonial and Post-Colonial History of DR Congo. But at the peak of the Ivorian crisis, he exhibited particular interest and wrote several notes of opinion. 

Frans Timmermans

Member of the Dutch Parliament for the Dutch Labour Party.

Hans Vonk

Former goal keeper of Bafana Bafana, Ajax Amsterdam en Ajax Cape Town'.

Ruth de Vries

World Press Photo and initiator 'Road to Twenty Ten and beyond.

Ann Waters–Bayer

Ann Waters – Bayer is an agricultural sociologist with ETC AgriCulture in Leusden, Netherlands. She specializes in social and institutional aspects of research and development, especially innovation processes that enhance local capacities to adapt to change. In 1981–85, as member of a livestock systems research team of ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), she worked on gender and land issues among Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria. After completing her doctorate at the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, she coordinated a postgraduate programme on agricultural extension at the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture. She has (co-)authored several books and articles on pastoralist development and on innovation processes involving smallholders in Africa.

Mark Wijne

He was send out to Somalia in 1992 -1993, as food expert and later on as coordinator of a medical emergency aid team. Momentarily he works for Unicef NL, as advocacy officer Child Rights. Mark will mostly be sharing his experiences in Somalia. 

Marijke Wijnroks

Dutch AIDS ambassador for the UN.

Jan de Witte

Works at SNV.

Seri Simplice Zokou

Mr Seri Zokou is former journalist, lawyer and Human Rights activist. Lecturer at the Institute for Training on Small and Medium Sized Companies in Brussels. Was speaker on International  Policy, specially on Ivory Coast and Africa in their relationship with rest of world. His last conference was in London on “The Ivorian crisis: a conflict between internal and international law.