User:Verbavolent12/sandbox/Peter Vanhoutte

Peter Vanhoutte, (°23/03/1956, Genk, Belgium) is a former Member of the Belgian Parliament with over 18 years of experience in South-East Europe and beyond. He has served as a Parliamentary and Political Party Empowerment Expert and high-level conflict mediator, specialized in political conflicts, in Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, Indonesia, Nepal, Surinam, Guyana, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, BiH, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Macedonia. He developed an innovative approach aiming to solve conflicts with a political background. He also introduced a system of interactive learning for parliamentary staff and MPs as well as for staff of political parties and political party representatives with the aim to strengthen negotiation and conflict resolution skills, parliamentary processes of legislative drafting, oversight and outreach capacities, and strategic planning, the development of political party programs and party communication and management.

Because of his expertise, he has been seconded to the OCSE in various positions: Special Envoy in the north of Kosovo to the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Special Political Adviser to the Kosovo-Serb political parties and community, Special Adviser to the President of the Assembly of Kosovo and Senior Adviser external and parliamentary oversight on police and security/intelligence services in Serbia. From 2008 on, he worked as parliamentary empowerment expert on the implementation of security sector reform programs and security sector oversight for the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). In 2008–2009, he supported in Nepal the development of a political dialogue in a post-conflict environment. In 2010 the State University of New York/Centre for International Development invited him to support a capacity building program in the National Assembly of Serbia, focusing on conflict prevention, internal and external communication and budget oversight as well as a parliamentary capacity building program in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bangladesh. In 2013 he was appointed Executive Director (CEO) of the Centre for Democratic and Participatory Governance, a Brussels based organization. From mid 2013 till mid 2016, he worked as high level mediator in Skopje for the EU Commission to settle a serious escalating conflict between the main political parties. In 2016, he received the highest Belgian merit-based reward of officer in the order of the Crown for his whole career.