Dirk-Jan Koch about AMID Leadership Programme

'Global poverty and international inequality has always fascinated me: I think it is because of my parents.' says prof. dr. Dirk-Jan Koch, lecturer of the AMID Leadership Programme. 

‘When I was growing up in Achterveld, a small village in the center of the Netherlands, they were running a small fair trade shop. We also had 2 Foster Parents Kids, with whom we would be exchanging letters in Honduras. Ever since, I have tried to contribute to reducing poverty and inequality, or at least understand how we could achieve this. What works? What doesn’t work? And what works even counterproductively?’

Team up

‘This made me live and work in countries such as Nigeria,  the Democratic Republic Congo and Kenya, and made me pursue a PhD in development studies at the Radboud University. For the last five years, I am the Chief Science Officer of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which we worked to come up with evidence-based strategies to enhance development impact. Luckily, I was able to combine this with a professorship (by special appointment) in development studies at the Radboud University. This allowed me to team up with some of the brightest minds and pursue joint research on these questions.’ 

Increasing impact for leaders

‘What struck me is that there are AMID programs for early career professionals in the international development sector, and also for lateral entrants, but not for executives, managers, leaders and strategists this sector. For them, with professional education experts of RadboudCSW we have developed a brand new program that focuses on their needs. In 8 sessions we will work in a small group to strengthen their knowledge, skills and personal development to to increase the impact of their organization.' 

I am very excited about the progam because it is the first of its kind in the Netherlands. We have developed new teaching materials that will enable participants to move from linear thinking to more adaptive programming by making use of key insights from complexity thinking. While we at Radboud don’t have have all the answers, we know which questions to ask so particpants will definitely learn a lot, especially from each other. #ProudtobeRadboud #WeAreRadboud

About Dirk-Jan Koch

Dirk-Jan (1980) is serving as the Chief Science Officer of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is Special Professor of International Trade & Development Cooperation. Dirk-Jan finished his PhD (cum laude) at the Radboud University in 2009 and focused on geographic choices of international development NGOs. He was based for 5 years in the DRC and 2 years in Kenya, where he worked amongst others as a regional director at Search for Common Ground, as a professor at the Catholic Univeristy of Kinshasa and as a diplomat of the Netherlands to the DRC.

Read more about the AMID Leadership Programme