Shoqi A. Maktary is the country director of Search for Common Ground - Yemen. Shoqi is a former Fulbright scholar with master's degrees in conflict transformation and peacebuilding, and security management. Prior to joining Search, Shoqi was risk management advisor for Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit where he advised GIZ country directors and project heads on conflict, risk and security issues through in-depth context analysis and trend developments, and provided guidance on conflict sensitive planning, and safe and effective implementation of activities.