Mamdouh Fadil (He / Him)

Over the past thirty years, I have developed a professional experience in international development, education reform, education and Youth in emergency, Civil Society, working with at-risk youth, gender mainstreaming, Monitoring and evaluation, research, research management, project design, project management, implementation, training and professional development, and system strengthening on grassroots, intermediary and macro levels. I designed and participated in designing programs that are carried out by government organizations, NGOs, and grassroots community-based organizations. Spending a big portion of my work experience in a very close contact with beneficiaries, youth groups, local development practitioners, and government officials gives me a very clear understanding of life conditions, socio-economic status, and different development variables. I have served in senior level management positions for large-scale USAID and other bilateral donor-funded international development programs for the past Twenty years. Serving as COP for large scale programs and as development and education expert in the Middle East and Asia (Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Yemen) since 2010 provides me with the experience and capacity to lead international development and education reform in conflict / post-conflict/emergency situations and areas affected by political tension and conflict. In this capacity, I have successfully managed diverse and talented international and national teams, partners, and stakeholders. We were able together to navigate challenging circumstances and complex settings through planning, problem solving, contextual understanding, technical excellence, adaptation and flexibility, motivation, and collaboration towards delivering evidence-based quality outcomes. My encounters with contemporary social and anthropological theory and development literature through my academic exposure to sociology and anthropology of development and education have extensively involved me in researching and understanding development policy issues in the Middle East and the global South especially concerning the nature of development interventions and ways it affects people’s life. In November 2014, I obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Social Anthropology from University of Sussex, UK. Thesis title is “From Hopelessness to Ambivalence: Young Egyptians between Secondary Schooling and the Arab Spring in Urban Cairo”. My PhD research explores the lives of young people at the time of their secondary schooling and the Arab spring through examining the contradictions and ambivalences of the coming of age for middle class young people inside the school and in the wider everyday life in urban Cairo. My research examines the extent to which the everyday educational studentship circumstances had constrained the sorts of subjects that youth could become, and which would constitute them as young and educated.