has 20 years of working experience on human rights, with over 5 years in leadership positions. Specialisation in: migrations (refugees, immigrants and human trafficking), human rights education, women rights, human rights and security, torture, death penalty and other human rights matters; strategy and planning; impact evaluation; organisational restructuring; media and communication; volunteers; personnel motivation and time management. She specifically:

 

Designed the strategic, operational and action plans of Amnesty International Portugal, helping to design and implement a qualitative and quantitative impact evaluation system and she also carried out the financial projections and budgeting for a five-year period. 

Implemented in Portugal the first Face to Face/ Direct Dialogue programme (one-on-one fundraising of people and funds) ever organized by an NGO.

Designed a public positioning and visibility plan that led to the increase of Amnesty International Portugal’s public profile.

Designed the plan to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the UNHCR in Portugal.

She has a degree in international relations at the Higher Institute for Social and Political Sciences ISCSP (Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas) specialising in Economic, Cultural and Political Relations in Africa, South and Central Americas and Asia and the Pacific Rim. She has a masters degree in Strategy, training in Interpersonal Relationship and Teamwork and a course in Management of Humanitarian Aid projects.

She was a consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 1997 and 1998, Researcher on Asia at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (Instituto de Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais, IEEI) from 1999 to 2001, Researcher and Project Manager at the International Organization for Migrations in 2002 and Executive Director of Amnesty International Portugal from 2002 to 2008.

She has more than 40 published articles on human rights and international relations and was co-author in three books.

Special actions / representations

-       2005-2007 – Counsellor and member of the Executive Committee of the Higher Council on Ethics and Social Responsibility (Conselho Superior de Ética e Responsabilidade Social - CSERS), an independent body which provided counselling and monitored and issued recommendations on ethics and social responsibility.

-       2006 – Representative of Portugal at the Network Effect, a civil society forum set up by the British Council. The forum took place in Bratislava, Slovakia and was on “The Good Europe? – Civil Society, Power and Participation”. The aim is to network relevant players in civil society all over the world.

-            2003 – Amnesty International’s World representative at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Lobbying on resolutions and special meetings with delegates to the Commission.

-            1996 - Special Action at the Parliament due to the revision of the Constitution (Article 33). Under debate was the possibility of admitting extradition to countries with the death penalty. Participation in the expert committee.

-            1996 - Member of the committee that accompanied Mr. Pierre Sané, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General on his High Level Mission to Portugal in December, where he met with the Portuguese President, Ministers of Justice, Defence and Internal Affairs, as well as other high-level officials.

-            1996 – Contact person for the Special Rapporteur for Torture of the United Nations, Professor Nigel Rodley, when he came to Portugal on a special mission.

Volunteer work

- Training sessions at schools and invited speaker at conferences on refugees, human rights education, women rights, torture, death penalty and other human rights issues.

- Coordinator of the Paço de Arcos local group of Amnesty International Portugal.

– National Coordinator of the MAGRAN network - actions to prevent and report Human Rights violations in Portuguese and Spanish speaking African countries.

- Weekly program on Human Rights at Radio Clube Cascais, during one year.

- Member of the Portuguese Board of Amnesty International Portugal.

- Funding member of the United Nations Portuguese Association.

- Volunteer work for different Third Sector Organisations, national and international, such as Amnesty International, UNICEF, Greenpeace International, OIKOS (a development NGO), AMI (a medical assistance NGO) and Survival International.

Consultancy work:

- Instituto Institute for Strategic and International Studies (Instituto de Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais - IEEI) (2009-2012) – Design and coordination of a project on Human Rights, Migrations and Security – Combating Human Trafficking, in cooperation with an international network of institutions.

- Bolsa de Valores Sociais Portugal, BVS (since 2009) - Support in adapting BVS to Portugal and identifying social projects in the areas of entrepreneurship and education to be listed and financially supported by BVS..

- Portuguese Association for Corporate Ethics (Associação Portuguesa de Ética Empresarial (since 2008) – Coordinator of the NGO Stakeholder Group – working on ethics and social responsibility while organising the annual Forum and Week on Social Responsibility, and also drafting comments on the international social responsibility norm ISO 26000.

- Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs (Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD) (2008) – Coordination of the Portuguese Platform I ACCUSE, a platform of thirteen civil society organizations, which monitors the commitments undertaken at the EU-Africa Summit and Civil Society Forum which took place in Lisbon, in 2007.

- FREE (Fund for Refugee Employment and Education) (2002) – National expert in Portugal and researcher for the project, a project co-financed by the European Commission through the European Refugee Fund. Functions included research on refugee issues concerning reception and integration and approaching potential donors for the project, creating alliances and fundraising. During the project there was also a media campaign inviting participates to join the project. The Project was coordinated by RETAS from the UK.

- EC Framework Contract Human Rights (2002)– Invitation to evaluate project proposals under the framework on “support of the abolition of the death penalty, fighting impunity and promoting international justice and “support of prevention of torture and rehabilitation of victims of torture”.

- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (1997-1998)– reports and research on countries of origin, analysis and development of projects, visibility campaigns, institutional relations and training on refugees.

Areas of expertise: organisational strategic planning, organisational management, designing, implementing and evaluating projects, development of strategic alliances and human resource management, namely volunteers.

Sophie Robin has 12 years of international experience in strategic planning and management, acquired in different locations – Latin America and Europe, organisational – International organisations and Associations – and on specific sectors – Health and Development, Food Security, Europe-Africa Relations, amongst other themes. She worked for FAO in Latin America and the Caribbean; Médicos do Mundo in Portugal and the Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs..

She specifically:

• Designed and implemented FAO’s regional strategy for liaison with NGOs and Civil Society organisations, dealing with all its components (information and communication systems, strategic partnerships, relationship with internal and external stakeholders, and development of specific tools for FAO’s relationship with such agents).
• Reinforced the presence, legitimacy and visibility of Associação Vitae in Portugal and within its specific intervention scope (fighting against drug addiction and supporting the homeless population), by organising a national Congress on subjects of interest.
• Drafted the procedures and human resources management instruments, namely for volunteers, for Médicos do Mundo in Portugal.
• Drafted the proposal and implemented the annual operational action plan for 2006 and 2007 of the Portuguese Platform of Development NGO.

She did consultancy work in the following areas:

• Strategic planning (FAO, 2000), when FAO decentralised responsibilities from the HQ in Rome to the regional offices. 
• Strategic alliances and promotion of agro-food chains (FAO, 2004), moderating an electronic regional conference on the issue, finalizing the process of creating dynamic initiatives to promote alliances within different sectors, driven by FAO’s project.
• Starting up several consultancy projects at Stone Soup.

Interested in connecting corporate job approaches to social themes, she has a Masters Degree in Business Management with a British University, thus aiming at enhancing the quality and impact of development actions.

She designed the teaching module on Management of Non for Profit Organisations as part of the Executive Master on Development Management of the International University in Lisbon (30 hours) and is currently responsible for teaching the module on “Leadership and Human Resources Management” to fourth year students of the degree on Business Management and Administration at University Ramon Llull in Barcelona. 

Sophie Robin resides in Barcelona, Spain.

Volunteer experience

• Sophie Robin is a member of the Grup33 Executive Committee (“Another Prison is Possible”: www.grup33.org)

Rosa Matos has 16 years of experience on sustainable development acquired in Third Sector organisations in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. Areas of expertise: nature and biodiversity conservation; citizenship, participative governance and public influence over planning, spatial planning and environment; entrepreneurship and leadership, philanthropy and social investment; institutional strengthening of third sector organisations (strategic planning, strategic partnerships, organisational performance evaluation, impact evaluation, external relations).

She specifically contributed for:

• The growth of the Iberian Council for Nature Defence (CIDN - Consejo Ibérico para la Defensa de la Naturaleza) from 8 to 12 member organisations, development of networking work dynamics in joint projects and campaigns and the diversification of sources from public and private funding. 
• The opening in Portugal of a representation of Foundation AVINA, being in charge of diagnostics, design and implementation of the strategic and operational plans, institutional representation, identification and partnership follow up with the 9 Portuguese partners from civil society organisations, management of social investment, and promotion of partnerships between AVINA’s partners in Portugal, Spain and Latin America. 
• The definition and implementation of Foundation AVINA’s International Bridges’ strategy for Europe, with active participation of local Representations and Latin-American partners, as well as the implementation of communication mechanisms with internal and external stakeholders, and monitoring and impact evaluation.
• The creation of a community of allies made up of global organisations with HQ in different European countries, committed to processes of sustainable development in Latin America.
• Adaptation of Bolsa de Valores Sociais to Portugal - BVS (Social Stock Exchange) (May-October 2009) to Portugal and the identification of social projects in the areas of entrepreneurship and education to be listed and financially supported by BVS.

She has a degree in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the Oporto University (science-technological specialisation in Ecology and Zoological Resources), where she also concluded the classes and study plan of the Master in Applied Ecology. She is attending a Masters in Development Management at England’s Open University.  

She cooperated as biologist with the Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (FAPAS - Fundo para a Protecção dos Animais Selvagens) in Oporto from 1994 to 1997, she was Secretary General of the Iberian Council for Nature Defence (CIDN - Consejo Ibérico para la Defensa de la Naturaleza) in Madrid, from 1998 to 2000, Aid to the National Board of the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN - Liga para a Protecção da Natureza) in Lisbon, from 2001 to 2002, Director of the Programme for International Waters of EURONATURA in Lisbon, from 2001 to 2003 and Representative of Foundation AVINA in Portugal from 2003 to 2005. Since 2006 she coordinates the International Bridges Representation of Foundation AVINA in France, Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal.

Sandra Costa is a journalist for 14 years and for the last six years she has also been a communication freelancer on cooperation for development. She was the communication coordinator for NGO Médicos do Mundo – Portugal, between 2003 and 2007.

Areas of expertise: institutional communication, communication and media, content production in different formats (printed and on-line), event planning.

She specifically contributed to the:

• Operational planning of the communication area of NGO Médicos do Mundo – Portugal, through the design and implementation of annual activity plans and respective budgets;  
• Editorial design of the main external communication instruments of the organisation, namely the Bulletin and website and daily coordination of both;
• Planning and coordination of campaigns in different media, visibility, awareness raising and fundraising actions and events, such as exhibitions, conferences and shows -  planning, budgeting, overall coordination, alliances, fundraising/ sponsorships, dissemination to the general public, contacts with the media and final evaluation;
• Coordination of two photography books and one children short stories book – contacts with the authors (writers and photographers), designers, supporters and sponsors, publishers and media.

Sandra Costa has a degree in Communication from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas) of Nova University in Lisbon and is currently undertaking a Masters Degree in Political Science and International Relations, with a specialisation in Globalisation and Environment.  She has a course on Heath and Communication, by the Medical Faculty of Oporto and three courses on Press Communication by CENJOR, training centre for journalists. 

She also worked as press officer for theatre companies Artistas Unidos and Depois da Uma – Teatro, where she created the communication plans, organised press rehearsals and media contacts.

• For Amnesty International, where she co-authored the book “Conspiração da Esperança”. 
• She also wrote research articles for AI’s Bulletin and worked with the media office and the Urgent Action Network.
• For Médicos do Mundo, working with the communications department, before joining the organisation in 2003 as a member of the staff.