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New IFRTD Executive Secretary appointed
2005-04-18

It gives us great pleasure to welcome Marinke van Riet as the new Executive Secretary of The Secretariat of the IFRTD.

IFRTD’s former Executive Secretary Priyanthi Fernando has moved to Sri Lanka and is now the Executive Director of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). Peter Njenga, who is responsible for
the IFRTD devolved Secretariat in Eastern and Southern Africa, has been the acting Executive Secretary and will continue to be responsible until Marinke formally takes over on May 3rd 2005.

ITDG (Intermediate Technology Development Group) is administratively responsible for hosting the IFRTD Secretariat and has been organising the recruitment process, in collaboration with the nominated members of the IFRTD Executive Committee and IFRTD Secretariat Team. The post was internationally advertised in December, and following short-listing, interviews took place by telephone in February and in person in March. There was as strong field, but Marinke emerged as the
selected candidate.

To introduce Marinke, here is a 'pen portrait' summarising her own words:

Marinke van Riet, IFRTD Executive Secretary -

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Marinke started travelling in Africa after finishing secondary school. Inspired by this experience she returned to the Netherlands, and qualified in African studies at the University of Leiden, with BA and Master's degrees. During her studies, Marinke specialized in environmental and legal anthropology, which took her to Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

In 1994, the year of the first democratic elections in South Africa, Marinke spent a year at the University of Cape Town where she also carried out voters' education in the townships
helping to empower illiterate women through the voting process. In Kenya, Marinke carried out research into various approaches in participatory processes used in developmental and environmental projects. This resulted in her thesis and publication, entitled 'Conservation and participation: forest or firewood.'

Marinke joins the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development after more than six years as the Program Officer for Africa for the New York-based 'Trickle Up' Program. She was responsible managing a network of more than 60 nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) in eastern, western and southern Africa. Trickle Up is engaged in microenterprise development in Asia, Africa and the Americas through networks of local organisations. Through networking, training workshops, technical and financial assistance, communication, field offices, regular visits and an intensive strategic planning process, Marinke provided technical oversight and capacity building to the network partners and entrepreneurs. She also has significant experience working with various foundations and multilateral institutions including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and several international NGOs.

Marinke has taught grassroots development at Columbia and New York Universities.
She is fluent in English and French, and also basic Swahili.