Urban Reichhold

Urban Reichhold is a non-resident fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi). His areas of expertise include humanitarian affairs, multi-agency programming as well as monitoring and evaluation. He currently works on two GPPi projects: an evaluation of OCHA’s regional office in Western and Central Africa and an evaluation and review of humanitarian access strategies in DG ECHO-funded interventions.

Before joining GPPi in late 2011, Urban worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Department for International Development (DFID). He supported the UN country team in Kinshasa with the preparation of the DRC 2012 Humanitarian Action Plan. He also assessed the UK’s contribution to the Pooled Fund and reviewed a cash-based assistance project implemented by a consortium of NGOs headed by UNICEF.

His previous work experience includes field assignments with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, the DRC and Nepal. As an ICRC delegate, he engaged closely with military actors, including non-state armed groups, to negotiate humanitarian access and promote the respect of humanitarian principles. He also coordinated the implementation of aid programs in the fields of emergency assistance, protection and early recovery.

In 2006, Urban worked as a program manager at the delegation of the European Commission in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was responsible for aid programming in the fields of human rights, gender and the rule of law. Prior to this assignment, he was a monitoring and evaluation expert with OCHA in Geneva. As part of his work with OCHA, Urban participated in an evaluation of the newly developed cluster approach, a key humanitarian coordination mechanism piloted by the UN to coordinate emergency relief operations following the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

Urban studied sociology and political science at the Humboldt University in Berlin, the Insitut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and the Complutense University in Madrid. He holds a master’s in development management from the London School of Economics. He has received scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service and the British Council.

Languages: French, German, Spanish, English