Team

Gianluca is an experienced Italian professional with over 30 years of outstanding experience in supporting civil society organisations, policy dialogue, and network development in Europe and the Mediterranean. He started his career as Policy Advisor for the European Parliament, focusing on regional development, social cohesion and environment (1995-2004). He was then the Head of the “Network Development and Coordination” Unit at the Anna Lindh Foundation in Egypt (2005-2012), responsible, amongst other, for the coordination of the civil society networks in 43 Euro-Mediterranean countries. In 2014-2018, he has been working with the Italian development cooperation NGO COSPE, leading the dept. for national and European operations, then advising community-based initiatives and civil society projects on democracy and public participation, especially in the Euro-Mediterranean area, Western Africa and Afghanistan. Gianluca also writes as freelance journalist and has published books related to environmental planning, social and cultural diversity, democracy and social change, Arab affairs and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has organised numerous conferences on human rights, dialogue and participation of civil society, and co-founded SabirFest for Mediterranean culture and citizenship, and Maydan Association. He holds an MA in Spatial and Urban Planning. He has excellent language skills in English and French, as well as a very good command of Arabic. 

Lina recently joined Particip as the Capacity Development Expert with over 25 years extensive international experience. Her expertise and interests focus on advocacy for human rights, quality of education, election campaigns, strategic planning, democratisation, and sustainable development. As a Network Building Specialist, she helped developing and implementing outreach strategies, policies, and the structuring of several CSO networks in Lebanon and the MENA region. Champion of women’s rights, she supported women to have a voice in political transitions and guided activists to advance women’s rights. Prior to joining Particip, Alameddine was the founding director of the Partnership Center for Development & Democracy in Lebanon between 2007-2019. From 2000 to 2007, she was the training manager at the National Democratic Institute. She has been actively involved in training for years, providing technical assistance to developing and transitional countries. Alameddine has been featured as a speaker and panellist in the MENA region and internationally. She is a senior expert in advocacy and has published numerous articles on the subject. Her publications include “The ABC’s of Advocacy” and “Advocacy toolkit concerning policies liberating commerce and its economic and social impacts”. Lina holds a PH. D in Educational Leadership from Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon. 

Fatma has 15 years working experience with international organizations, out of which 14 years in designing, managing and implementing communication strategies and plans, targeting diverse groups such as Mediterranean confederations, Tunisian civil society as well as socially deprived young people. She was the communication expert of EU-funded project “PASC-Tunisie”, which aimed at reinforcing Tunisian civil society capacities and establishing a trusting environment between local authorities and regional associations, so as they can contribute together to the socio-economic development of the country. She also was the communication manager of the NGO “Enda inter-arabe”, local member of “Enda tiers monde”, where she devoted part of her career to promote entrepreneurship and social inclusion within young people from underprivileged areas as well as rural women. Fatma started her career as a communication officer while being in charge of international relations in Businessmed, where she closely worked with several Mediterranean stakeholders, such as the private and public sector representatives, civil society and international organizations as partners. After 13 years of communication experience, she joined GIZ Tunisia, as a technical advisor in an employment promotion project, where she managed various regional projects led by Tunisian associations and private sector representatives. In 2020, Fatma joined Particip as the communication expert of the Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality programme.

With a Master’s degree in Administrative and Financial Management, Hela combines managerial and technical skills with in-depth knowledge of human and social affairs, in addition to supporting the planning and organization of internal and external events and managing donor relations as well. Hela has 18 years of experience, during which she covered many fields like human resources management, health insurance and data processing for organizations such as the “World Food Programme” or the “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development”. Hela is very interested in Tunisian public affairs, particularly women and youth rights in contemporary society. Hela joined the Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality Programme from the beginning as the Administrative and Financial Assistant, and has carried out many administrative tasks both on an organisational level as well as on the financial level. 

Karama is the Programme Assistant of Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality . She has been a civil society activist for more than seven years. She was involved with several international organisations including AIESEC, Dreams’NMotion, and International Peace Research Association. Karama is very interested in Peace and conflict resolutions, as well as youth empowerment and that is why she used to moderate discussions and debates about different world issues to promote social cohesion and engage youth to be more active in society. She was responsible for organising and implementing several events to promote Tunisia on the international level as a peaceful and cultural destination.