Roeland Monasch

Biography

Roeland Monasch is the CEO of Aflatoun. Aflatoun International is a Social Franchise delivering Social, Financial & Entrepreneurship Education through a network of 300+ partner organizations. Its mission is to inspire children and young people to socially and economically empower themselves to become agents of change for a more equitable future. Aflatoun’s programmes are implemented in 100+ countries, reaching more than 10 million children and young people in 2019. In addition to the content itself, Aflatoun provides all the technical support necessary to develop, implement, evaluate and scale-up Social, Financial and Entrepreneurship Education.

Until June 2015 Roeland was the UNICEF Representative in Sierra Leone. He was responsible for the UNICEF response during the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in the country. In this capacity he also co-led with the Ministry of Education the reopening of all schools. He also worked as UNICEF Representative in Georgia (2009-2012) focusing on the de-institutionalization of all children living in large orphanages established during the Soviet Union era. He served as UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe during the Humanitarian Crisis (2008–2009). He joined that Country Office in 2004 as Programme Coordinator.

Previously, Roeland worked in the Strategic Information Unit in UNICEF/HQ on Monitoring the Situation of Children around the World (1998-2004). From 1993-1998 he worked for WHO (Strengthening of Health Systems Department & Department of Emerging and other Communicable Diseases – Switzerland & Lesotho). Before joining the UN he worked in Pakistan, Zambia and Bhutan.

Roeland is a national of the Netherlands, holds a Masters’ degree in Sociology (University of Groningen) and has an additional degree in Development Economics. He has published extensively in the international scientific literature, especially on issues related to Orphans and other Vulnerable Children.

Roeland is married and has a sixteen-year-old daughter.