Consultants

Marc Sommers

Consultant

Marc Sommers has served as an international evaluator for CMPartners and the Conflict Management Group since 1999, conducting 16 field evaluations in three post-conflict countries (Rwanda, Burundi and Timor-Leste). He is a member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security, and is a Visiting Researcher with Boston University’s African Studies Center.

Marc is an internationally recognized youth and conflict expert. He also has expertise on peacebuilding, conflict negotiation, gender, countering and preventing violent extremism, urbanization, education, refugee, and development issues. He has written 9 books and received 4 book awards, and has provided strategic advice and carried out research, assessment and evaluation work for donor and UN agencies, NGOs and policy institutes in 22 war-affected countries. During his recent tenure as Senior Conflict Advisor with the U.S. Department of State, he provided conflict analysis and peacebuilding advice for Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mozambique, South Sudan, youth issues, CVE, and atrocities prevention.

Marc taught for many years at The Fletcher School and was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Boston University in 1994. He is fluent in Swahili, is proficient in Spanish, has a working knowledge of French, and is conversational in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi.