Our International Board

I’ve gotten to know VECO (now Rikolto) as a member of the Food Lab network, through the strategic learning assessments for both Central America and Latin America where I had the pleasure to meet both regional staff and visit some of the incredible farmer associations that Rikolto in the Andes regio and Central America are supporting.

I’ve found Rikolto to be one of the few organisations that reflect on their work and are willing to learn. Rikolto shares the same values regarding commitment to being a learning organization as the Sustainable Food Lab. What I love about the organisation is that it’s a mix between practical work on the field and a robust theoretical foundation. I was also struck by Rikolto's history: I haven't seen many successful mergers between 3 different civil society organisations and this is a testament to their adaptability.

My background is in supply chain management and ethical purchasing, managing cocoa purchasing from 1995-2002 at US specialty chocolate company and then running my own consulting company to help companies develop ethical sourcing programs.. I’ve always worked at the intersection between trade & development, and continue this work in our program on Agriculture & Development at the Food Lab.

In my role on the new Rikolto international board I will bring insights from this US perspective on business, where the dialogue is different to Europe on concepts such as corporate social responsibility and working with NGOs.

I look forward to being involved in the debates on the future of smallholder farming, on defining the global strategies for the future, and how Rikolto transitions to an effective and dynamic network organization.

Vredeseilanden (now Rikolto) and I go way back. As a teenager and boy scout I was already involved in fundraising in Belgium. Every year in January I took to the streets, selling gadgets to raise money for Rikolto's activities, often even on my birthday. Many years later, I started working for FADO in Indonesia, a small NGO which later merged with Vredeseilanden. On my return to Belgium I became a member of the General Assembly and of its Finance Committee, and since last year, I'm a member of the Belgian Board of Directors.

It was this board that initiated the transition towards a network organisation, and my role in the new board is to be the link between the old and the new board. I know how Rikolto works in the field, I'm familiar with our core values and approaches, and I know and fully support the new direction it wants to take. I also bring to the international board my financial expertise, as I currently work in the banking industry, as well as my experience in change management and general management.

What kept me involved with Rikolto for so long is the organisation’s constant willingness to improve, to do better. Rikolto is known and appreciated for its self-reflection and innovation. So after all these years you can still find me at the door of a Belgian supermarket in January, raising funds for Rikolto!

I came into contact with Rikolto as a member of the board of Kauri (now The Shift), the first Belgian network in which private companies, NGOs and other civil society actors discussed sustainability issues. At that time I worked for Unilever in the area of sustainability. Working at the crossroads between environmental aspects, international relations and business has always been my main interest.

Rikolto has occasionally invited me to their strategic discussions on how to work with private companies and I've always liked the open spirit during those meetings. This is really one of the strengths of the organisation: to create settings in which all people around the table feel safe to express their vision, without being pinned down. Then a couple of years ago, I joined the General Assembly of Vredeilanden (now Rikolto in Belgium).

As a multi-lingual Dutch person I have lived, worked and studied in the UK, the US, Germany and The Netherlands, but currently live in Belgium. So I feel well connected with the many stakeholders of Rikolto in Belgium. I also braved the mountains of Nicaragua and the rice fields in Indonesia on my bike to raise funds for Rikolto's activities.

So I did not hesitate when I was asked to join the new International Board. Together with Koen Dolphen, I see myself as the link between the 'old' and the 'new' Rikolto and I understand Rikolto's way of working and thinking. I look forward to sharing my experience working with multi-stakeholder processes and communications.

I'm really happy to get the opportunity to join the International Board of Rikolto. For me this is a new experience since I am normally more involved in scientific committees and networking.

I feel connected with Rikolto because it is one of the few organisations I know that really put farmers at the centre of their work and believing that farmers could compete in the globalised market. I have personally experienced some good examples of Rikolto’s work programme in Indonesia.

I have recently been asked by my university to build a vocational training centre to connect theory and the practice of agriculture value chain development. Through my connection with Rikolto I can make this centre even more relevant, focusing on promoting applied research that directly benefits smallholder farmers.

What I can offer to Rikolto is my wide experience in the rice and food sectors in Southeast Asia and my network with center of excellence in training, research, and education.

I visited several Rikolto (then Vredeseilanden) offices as an evaluator for NewForesight in 2014. All over the world I found staff dedicated to their work and to continuously do better. The network organization was a buzz word that still needed to become practice and when asked to be a board member I was happy to contribute to a successful transition and empower all those that I had met. It is great to now see that the transition has become concrete, challenges have been overcome and the efforts are paying off.

I've been working on sustainable economic development worldwide for 15 years. My experience and expertise center around strategy development, global supply chains, and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs). I try to always keep an eye on the human factor in all, specifically related to culture and gender.

As Rikolto is continuing on its journey to remaining and becoming an impactful and innovative network organization focused on a sustainable food system, I feel lucky to be able to support this process as part of our equally dedicated board.

I have always enjoyed working with Rikolto, from the first time a few years ago while reviewing regional programmes in the Andes and Latin America. The first email that I received said: "here are all the documents that you need, and here is a list of all the things that have gone wrong. Start there!". I found that very refreshing; all the other institutes and NGOs that I usually work with are often only focused on showing all the good things that are happening.

One of the things that I very much respect and value about Rikolto, is the fact that you are willing to try new things. There seems to be a greater appetite or willingness to fail, with a strong genuine desire to learn about what is going on. The other element that I like is Rikolto's capacity to bridge practice from the field to influence policies. I think this remains a big challenge, not only for Rikolto, but for most organisations that try to do this. Furthermore Rikolto’s people and underlying values very much appeal to me: the notion of interdependence and dialogue, and the idea of working with various different kinds of partners that may not seem obvious from the outside.

That is what has moved me to support Rikolto's work as part of its international board of directors. I want to provide support in the areas in which I am knowledgeable and in which I have useful skills, strengthening Rikolto's capacity as it transitions towards a network organisation.

Alex is the Director of Corporate Affairs, Cocoa, Mars Wrigley Confectionery. Alex joined Mars in 2013, as Global Programs lead, where he built partnerships to deliver an average of $20M per year in external funding in support of their raw material sourcing strategies. He developed advocacy and engagement strategies to support their sustainability objectives.

Alex is responsible for overseeing all government relationships and international institutional activity relevant to cocoa in West Africa. He contributes to associate relevant engagement to cocoa as we progress on our journey to ensure that cocoa is a sustainable crop for the future.

He was also Director of International Government Relations, and in that role, he supported the design of a framework for the development of strategies to guide Mars’ engagement with international organizations, such as the WHO, IFAD, and World Bank and others.

When I discovered that Rikolto was looking for someone to join the Board of both the Belgian non-profit organisation as well as the international foundation, I was curious to know more. Based on my experience and my passion, I felt I could and wanted to join the Boards. Working in an international context to make sustainable food available for all is something I really want to contribute to. Being an economist and grown up between fruit and vegetables, I gained experienced in international organisations and have more then 10 years of experience in people management. After several years active as an expressive and enthusiastic consultant, I felt it was time to go back to the roots: being active with food made with love in an artisanal way (Bon&belge).

I really appreciate to join the Rikolto International Board and I see myself bringing over 30 years of experience in working with smallholder farmers especially women and youth in East Africa. In my current position I have also engaged with micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in food staples input markets, processing, packaging and trading.

This partnership with private sector led to innovations that increased access to markets by smallholder farmers and stimulated growth of SMEs agribusinesses including produce off-takers and processors as they are the backbone of the food systems. In so doing we are building resilient and sustainable food systems in the region.

I am excited that Rikolto is supporting the approach. My previous experience when I worked with the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania in advisory services as a communication and knowledge management specialist brought me closer to farmer-based organization. I supported them to mobilize and utilize their social capital that built and strengthened collective actions in various value chain development initiatives.

As an Agriculture and Rural Development practitioner, I knew about Rikolto (then VECO) since early 1990s when I was working in IFAD funded Southern Highlands Extension and Rural Finance project in Tanzania. The collaboration with Rikolto helped smallholder farmers to build strong organizations that have a voice in bringing lasting change in their livelihoods. In my work in East Africa region I was brought closer to Rikolto when implementing joint projects in Tanzania and Uganda.

I will position myself in the Board to share knowledge and continue to support the work that Rikolto is doing with smallholder farmers and focus on transformation of smallholder farmers towards commercialization. We will work closely with SMEs in building strong agribusinesses that promote regional trade and thus develop sustainable food systems in the region to attain food and nutrition security and for wealth creation.