Lorenzo Gontijo Email & Phone Number

Erbil, Erbil Governorate, Iraq

The MEAL Officer is responsible for the following tasks:• Develop and implement comprehensive M&E frameworks for all projects, ensuring the collection of relevant and high-quality data.• Analyse and interpret M&E data to generate evidence-based insights and recommendations for programmatic and MEAL areas of development.• Establish and manage feedback and complaint mechanisms to ensure the active participation of right-holders and stakeholders in program decision-making.• Work closely with project teams to integrate accountability mechanisms into project design and implementation.• Facilitate regular reflection sessions with project teams to extract lessons learned and best practices.• Responsible for writing donor reports, ensuring the timely and accurate preparation of reports, and compliance with donor requirements and organizational standards.• Serve as the point of contact for proposal writing, working closely with program teams and others to gather necessary information.• Supervise and mentor field MEAL staff, ensuring their professional development and adherence to MEAL's best practices.• Work closely with ED and program Dept to develop high-quality project proposals, ensuring alignment with donor requirements and organizational priorities.• Actively contribute to the organization's fundraising efforts and identify potential funding opportunities

(Short-term contract)Responsible for providing technical support to the organization’s fundraising efforts through desk research, managing the donor database, and assisting in proposal writing.

Responsible for providing technical support to the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Department for its monitoring and evaluation activities. This involved e.g. monitoring the progress and evaluating the impact of capacity-strengthening activities implemented in Syria that targeted grassroots organizations working on peacebuilding and women’s rights on the ground. My work consisted of assessing projects’ outputs and outcomes vis-a-vis indicators initially set in the log frame and project proposals, analyzing data that was gathered through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations, as well as Feedback and Complaint Response Mechanisms. That entailed writing reports, evaluations, and contextual analyses to the MEAL Officer, the Executive Director and donors, reporting on the lessons learned and sharing them with the right stakeholders in an effective and timely manner. This experience put me in contact with community-based approaches to development and peacebuilding, results-based M&E, and remote management. It also allowed me to work on projects of complex and volatile operational conditions and strengthened my ability to interact with and be accountable to donors and affected communities alike.

HDRI is a think-tank focused on producing applied policy research on human development directed towards stakeholders involved in the themes addressed. Responsible for recruiting and managing a team of 6 researchers and overseeing the writing process of policy briefs on subjects related to migration, security, development, and humanitarianism. Production of policy briefs and toolkits; experience with project management dealing with a dynamic international team of researchers, as well as providing detailed written and oral feedback on research, and reviewing and editing reports.

Copenhagen, Capital Region, Denmark

Volunteer at the Danish Red Cross Youth's (URK) Civil Society Mentorship project, aimed at empowering young refugees and immigrants who had their asylum requests denied by the Danish state and are currently held in Danish asylum centres until being deported. The project consists of developing activities that put the youth in contact with local civil society initiatives that allow them to gain knowledge while also building trust and community-building skills that will be useful later on in their lives, regardless of the context. I have acquired experience with project management and community engagement in a multicultural environment.

Belo Horizonte E Região, Brasil

Researcher at the Project "The Legitimacy of Unconventional Interpretive Paradigms in International Relations", with a focus on Postcolonialism. The project sought to foster the study of theories still considered marginal in the field of International Relations, such as Postcolonialism, Feminism, and Green Theories, aiming at evaluating and highlighting their potential for the analysis of political, social, and economic phenomena from a critical perspective. This was done by reviewing the literature available, producing research, and presenting it at national and international academic congresses.

Belo Horizonte E Região, Brasil

Responsible for contacting, verifying feasibility, and monitoring international cooperation agreements between UEMG and foreign higher education institutions (HEIs). Contribution to the development of projects to promote ARI/UEMG’s actions abroad; production and translation of MoUs between UEMG and foreign HEIs; production of reports on ARI’s projects; collection, handling, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data; writing project proposals to obtain grants from national and international agencies; organization of events; mediation in meetings with foreign delegations.

Belo Horizonte E Região, Brasil

Responsible for coordinating a team of 15 volunteers in organizing and carrying out activities aimed at putting the local community in contact with projects developed by International Relations students. Among these projects, I highlight the establishment of partnerships and interaction with 12 high schools in Belo Horizonte to carry out awareness campaigns that reached more than 500 youth. This was done through the production and distribution of adapted textbooks on themes of international politics, human development, and humanitarian issues to students, like migration, gender equality, and climate change, in addition to the promotion of lectures and engaging debates on such topics in schools. This project raised awareness among the local youth about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the need to adopt such practices at the local and regional levels.

Belo Horizonte E Região, Brasil

Responsible for promoting livelihood initiatives for immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations in Belo Horizonte. Co-founder, developer, and coordinator of the Fala Zanmi project, a language course given by immigrants and refugees of different nationalities, aimed at generating income, employment, and integrating these individuals into society through the exchange of knowledge and culture between teachers (immigrants) and students (local community interested in the project). Had a central role in the design and implementation of the project; establishment of partnerships to provide infrastructure, educational material, and pedagogical training for teachers; responsible for the project’s disclosure to the local community and its coordination. The Fala Zanmi contributed to the teachers’ integration into the local society, generating income for immigrants through the dozens of students in each language course offered (Arabic, French, Spanish, and English) and the consequent cultural exchange promoted by this encounter between teachers and students.

Cairo Governorate, Egypt

Responsible for planning and conducting empowerment sessions for refugees; focus group discussions; teaching basic English classes; and providing support in the organization's logistics and administrative tasks. By recognizing the difficulties refugee women in vulnerable situations assisted by the NGO face to integrate into Egyptian society - and in order to offer training to increase their chances of employment and enable them to have greater autonomy and quality of life - I started a language course where refugee women could learn English and French. The initiative provided training to dozens of women from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea.

Master'S Degree, International Development Studies & Global Studies

Bachelor'S Degree, International Relations