Brussels, Brussels Region, Belgium
20 years managing EU development cooperation in Asia, Africa and South America. Delivered best practices ranging from micro and technical construction solutions to macro by structuring and leading multi-billion partnerships with Team Europe agencies involving development banks. Jaime is a qualified architect and urbanist specialised in regional and environmental planning, bioclimatic design, human settlements. He is also a political economist of development researching a PhD on the financialisation of land markets and adequate affordable housing in India. Jaime holds expertise in: -Donor coordination and in particular in structuring and leading Team Europe sinergising development actors with commercial ones through economic diplomacy; -Building trust in diplomatically challenging situations; -Connecting and enhancing the intrinsic motivation of staff and partners to deliver effectively; -Advanced skills in mixed methods for research applied to evaluating impact of development programmes; -All stages of Project Cycle Management for International Development Cooperation (identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation); -Skilled at writing and reporting on development policy and political economy analysis; -Competent in 'policy dialogue' from sectors such as water management to macroeconomics and public finance management (PFM), Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) evaluation framework and Budget Support; -Delivering social infrastructure efficiently (adequate low-cost housing, water & sanitation, educational buildings, health buildings, etc...) -Mainstreaming resilience to climate change in design and construction; -Delivering economic infrastructure (roads, photovoltaic installations, ports...); -Published EU best practices in Owner-Driven Reconstruction (ODR); -Technically skilled in environmental safeguards; -Experienced in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR); Founder of social organisations: -The Cambridge University European Union Society (in 1999); -Architecture Sans Frontières (ASF)-Cambridge which led to the creation of ASF-London and ASF-UK and the consolidation of ASF-International; -The Cambridge Urbanisation Forum (2018)
Leading the structuring of Team Europe partnerships with Bolivia with a portfolio of over EUR 2 billion in development cooperation involving renewable energies, water & sanitation, alternatives to coca leaves plantations, human trafficking, human rights, democratic governance, fight against deforestation and forest fires, rural development, public finance management, Civil Society mobilisation, and solid waste management. Played a key role in diplomatically reconciling the EU with the Government of Bolivia by rebuilding trust on the EU's genuine development partnership objectives. Through economic diplomacy, prepared the grounds for EU companies to attempt lithium supply chain development in a socially and environmentally responsable manner in view of producing off-take compliant with the EU's Battery Passport. This passport is strict regarding social and environmental impacts and so is the EU Delegation's commitment. EU private companies have tentatively pledged a potential EUR 5 billion in investments. Many challenges ahead but trying our best.
Responsible for advising on policies, managing and monitoring the full project cycle management of a financial and technical co-operation portfolio of EUR 250+ million grants with the Republic of Sri Lanka focusing on the transition from post-war reconstruction to development. I regularly acted as Head of Cooperation section. I led the: 1) The technical audits and administrative closure of the EU’s post-tsunami reconstruction programmes to Sri Lanka including transport projects with the Asian Development Bank (ADB); 2) The implementation and effective completion of most post-war rehabilitation programmes linking relief reconstruction and development (LRRD) through rural livelihoods projects involving social infrastructure such as 'owner-driven housing reconstruction', water, value chain diversification, sanitation and environmental remediation through solid waste management mainly with UN agencies and NGOs; 3) Introduction of blending operations leveraging EUR 180 million from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for institutional capacity building in the water sector with an EUR 6 million grant from the Asia Investment Facility; 4) Preparing the grounds for transitioning from project approach to budget support in the agriculture sector with the World Bank. Undertook and published political economy analysis of water sector, advocated for a Public Finance Management (PFM) programme in anticipation of budget support operations and prepared revisions to the Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2014-2020.
Responsible for advising on policies, managed and monitored technical co-operation projects worth some EUR 100 million in grants with the State of Eritrea in infrastructure, post-conflict rehabilitation, architectural and urban heritage, water, sustainable energy solutions, environment (climate change adaptation), slum upgrading and transport. -Eritrea Education Sector Investment Programme, implemented through the World Bank facilitated access to primary education to some 39,000 children. -I was responsible for managing the Heritage Programme that started the process of preparation and capacity building to get Asmara admitted to the World Heritage Listing which materialised in June 2017.
Worked on the finalisation of the 8th European Development Fund (EDF) allocation to General Budget Support to the State of Cape Verde and on the preparation of the 9th EDF indicators which involved public finance management reforms as per the PEFA evaluation and sector specific performance indicators on the water, education and pensions sectors.
Responsible for advising on policies, manage and monitor a technical co-operation portfolio of EUR 60 million in programmes with the Republic of Cape-Verde under the 8th, 9th and 10th European Development Fund (EDF). This involved the Project Cycle Management of infrastructure for water, energy, climate change adaptation, transport, social urban housing, General Budget Support and the Cape Verde EU Special Partnership.
Part-time 'research assistant' on low-cost environmentally-sensitive housing and urban development, most of my work went into master-level curriculum development for the teaching of 'Sustainable Humane Habitat in Developing Contexts' based on the design studio work we undertook under the Prof. Himanshu Parihk in 2004. Involving the University of Cambridge's Department of Architecture and the Ecole d'Architecture Paris la Villette (EAPLV) who partnered and obtained a EUR 500,000 grant from the European Commission's Asia Link Programme to build a long-term partnership with CEPT University in Ahmedabad and Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai, India. I also coordinated research inputs from the different authors and encouraged the ETSAM, from UPM (Madrid, Spain) to join the programme at its own cost. ETSAM and CEPT continued running joint studios for over eleven years.