Rik Overmars, Country Director
Rik brings a lot of experience in market based solutions and Inclusive Business approaches to development. Prior to his posting to Mozambique in July 2011, he was Portfolio Coordinator for SNV in Zimbabwe.
Rik’s interests are in innovative development approaches. His expertise includes organizational development, value chain development and private sector development. He played a crucial role in strategy and successful networking an d resource mobilisation, as well as organisational change of the economic development teams in Zimbabwe. One of the successful programs where Rik has been involved in is the Rural Agrodealer programme which is creating shared value for rural farmers, SMEs, wholesale companies, and insurance companies by using an Inclusive Business approach. The programme has generated over 15 million US in grants with substantial resource mobilization for SNV advisory (4.5 million US for 3 years).
Rik holds a Msc in Forestry, and is currently obtaining his Masters in Business Leadership degree with the University of South Africa.
Prior to Zimbabwe, Rik worked in Asia (Indonesia, Philippines) and Latin America (Bolivia, Peru) for over 15 years. His work focused on organizational strengthening, commercialization of agroforestry systems and related industries, sustainable forest management and indigenous people both in advisory positions as well as in a management position.
Augusto Razulo, Portfolio Coordinator, Nampula
Augusto holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management, and is currently working towards an Masters in Business Administration Degree. With over 10 years of experience in community development work, he worked as a trainer in organizational and business development for farmers associations in Mozambique. His previous experience has been with CLUSA-Cooperative League of United States of America (1998-2001) as Project Coordinator for the Community Management and Natural Resource Project, with OLIPA-ODES, a local NGO (2001-2005) as project coordinator in various development projects including water and sanitation. As a Consultant Augusto trained productive groups in associative development, in viability studies for economic activities and strategic planning M&A.
Augusto joined SNV in 2005. His work focused in Civil Society area on supporting in the creation and training of local councils to strengthen local participation in development and domestic accountability. In 2007 he moved to the water, sanitation and hygiene sector. He was also the national focal point for Governance for Empowerment. In March 2009 he became senior advisor and the Portfolio Coordinator for the Nampula Portfolio. He responsible for SNV Mozambique’s sponsor for horticulture programme.
Laurens van Oeyen, Portfolio Coordinator, Maputo
Laurens holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Marketing, from Utrecht University. He is a Dutch national, with over 15 years business development experience in Southern and Eastern Africa, both as consultant and manager. Prior to joining SNV in September 2008, Laurens had been working for more than 10 years in the private sector in Africa, mainly brokering joint ventures and building strategic alliances between different companies across Africa. He joined SNV Mozambique as Senior Economic Development Advisor with the ambition to help the private sector connect with the local communities for the benefit of both, something he felt companies were interested in but struggling with. It is therefore no surprise that he picked up SNV’s Inclusive Business concept as one of the key approaches to spur sustainable development, also leading to a much more private sector orientated approach within SNV Mozambique. As Portoflio Coordinator, Maputo, he is keen to spearhead systemic and market based solutions across the different sectors SNV is active in and further strengthen the Mozambican management team.
Marta Madeira, Human Resources Officer
Marta holds Masters of Science Degree in Human Resources Management and Development for International Development from the Manchester University; a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) Degree in Organizational Psychology, a Bachelor of Arts in General Psychology, and a Management Development Certificate from the University of South Africa. She has over 20 years working experience with International NGOs focusing in Development/Capacity enhancement and improvement of standards of living. She has strong skills in Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Administration and project implementation. Before joining SNV, Marta worked with The World Bank offices in Maputo, with World Food Program in Finance, Mozal Community Development Trust as the Administrator responsible for Finance and Administration, and at the United Nations Development Programme. She also worked for the British Council in Mozambique for 11 years in various positions including Office management, Finance and Projects administration.
Marta joined SNV in September 2005 as a Human Resources Officer for Mozambique. In 2009 and 2010, she also acted as Human Resources Officer for SNV Zimbabwe. She finds joy in counselling individuals on career orientation, mentoring for development and managing organisational changes.
Carlota Cuambe, Country Controller for Mozambique
Carlota holds a Bachelor degree in Accounting and Auditing from ICHTEM. She also holds management and auditing professional qualifications. She is the finance officer for Mozambique since May 2009. She has strong experience in management accounting, financial reporting, internal auditing and payroll management. She has 15 years experience working with an international NGO and during her time with this organisation she had opportunity to work with different accounting packages like FIS, SAM and Microsoft Great Plains. She also has experience in managing gained from her work as Administrative Assistant. Carlota’s goal at SNV is to make all financial controls more effective and accounting processes more inclusive (e.g. budgeting process). She is also committed to improve the quality of support services that are being delivered to advisory staff.