Matthias Stiefel

Associate

Mr Matthias Stiefel is President and Founder of WSP International/Interpeace, an international NGO incorporated in Switzerland in May 2000 on the recommendation of the United Nations and of main donor governments. Its mandate is to strengthen societies threatened or torn by war and to support the United Nations and the international community in their responses to conflict and crises situations. It does so by initiating and supporting local peacebuilding initiatives in numerous countries, ranging from Somalia to Guatemala , from Macedonia to Rwanda and from Palestine to Aceh. WSP International is the successor body to the Untied Nations War-torn Societies Project (WSP) and to the WSP Transition Program, both of which Mr Stiefel also headed between June 1994 and May 2000.

Before launching WSP, Mr Stiefel worked as a senior advisor, staff or consultant with various international organizations and governments, among these the Untied Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Labour Organization (ILO) or the Swiss government. He has also been Managing Director of a private consultancy firm and was Deputy Director of the Program for Strategic and International Security Studies at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva . Mr Stiefel has been member of many Boards and is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of A Rocha International, an international conservation organization. Mr Stiefel graduated in political science in 1973. He is a Swiss national and is married with two children.

Matthias Stiefel