Kees Kouwenaar
Kees Kouwenaar has been professionally active in international cooperation with developing countries and least developed countries since 2002:
"From 2002 until 2008, I served as director of the Center for International Legal Cooperation, which supports countries that which to enhance their legal and judicial systems and processes.From 2008 onwards, I am the director of the Centre for International Cooperation of VU Universiteit Amsterdam (CIS-VU). Through CIS, VU aims to make our university’s expertise available to support sustainable and equitable development; particularly, but not exclusively supporting higher education and research in least developed countries and developing countries.
Previously I have held various positions with Nuffic: the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education, ranging from international recognition & credential evaluation, internationalisation of HE and mobility to international recruitment.
My experience which is relevant for PIE lies more with NPT projects and NICHE projects than with the NFP grant scheme. I firmly believe that Dutch higher education can and should contribute to sustainable and equitable development and that higher education and research should focus more on the global challenges of mankind and of the planet. These challenges are very often particularly urgent for people in least developed and developing countries".