In this conversation, Robert Watkins speaks with Ambassador Nathalie Chuard, the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), about security sector reform in today's world.
Guest: Ambassador Nathalie Chuard
Ambassador Nathalie Chuard is the Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), a position she has held since March 2023 as the first woman appointed to head the organization. She brings over twenty years of experience in the fields of international cooperation, humanitarian aid, and diplomacy.
After studying literature and political science in Switzerland and Russia, she began her career in 2000 with the Swiss NGO Terre des Hommes, holding various international positions in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Madagascar, and the Middle East. She joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in 2005, where she notably served as Deputy Head of the Human Rights Section in Bern and as Political Coordinator at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York.
From 2018, Ms. Chuard headed the Middle East and North Africa Division (Humanitarian Aid) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and from 2020 to 2023 she served as Switzerland's Ambassador to Bangladesh. She speaks French, German, English, and Russian.
🔗 Related resources: www.dcaf.ch/nathalie-chuard
Host: Robert Watkins, Research Associate, CCDP
Robert Watkins joined the CCDP after a 35-year career working for international organisations in political, humanitarian, development and post-conflict recovery areas in some 13 different countries, principally in the Middle East, Central, and South Asia. He served for the United Nations as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in Lebanon (2011-2014) and Afghanistan (2009-2011) at the level of Assistant Secretary General, as well as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Bangladesh (2015-17), Djibouti (2014), and Georgia (2006-2009). Since retiring from the UN at the end of 2017, he has taught as a Practitioner at the Graduate Institute and at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and presented papers on Conflict Prevention at AUB, Lebanon, and the University of Tianjin, China.
Production Credits
Producer: Jennifer Thornquest, Researcher, CCDP
The CCDP Spotlight Podcast is a production of the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding (CCDP).
🔗 Learn more about CCDP: https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/ccdp