Mariska van Beijnum

Mariska van Beijnum is head of the Clingendael Conflict Research Unit (CRU). As such, she is responsible for the overall management of the Unit (i.e. agenda setting, maintaining international network of clients and partners, financial management, personnel affairs, acquisition, etc.). The CRU team currently consists of 14 people.

In her capacity of Senior Research Fellow at CRU, Mariska’s research focuses on aid architecture and aid effectiveness issues in fragile and conflict-affected situations, and specifically on coordination and coherence issues (whole-of-government / whole-of-system approaches) as well as financing modalities.

Prior to joining Clingendael in 2006, she held a research position at the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working on the evaluation of local governance assistance through Municipal International Cooperation and on the Evaluation of Dutch Humanitarian Assistance.

She has a background in political sciences and humanitarian assistance, and was an awarded an MA in this subject from the University of Groningen in 2001. She also holds an MA in Policy, Communication and Organisation from the Vrije Universiteit (VU) of Amsterdam.

Mariska is member of the Board of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). She is member of the UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group.