Bertrand Effantin graduated in communication and advertising (BTS diploma from the Institut Pitiot in Lyon), trained in international solidarity activities at the Institut Bioforce (Vénissieux), and later in 2013 in Market Systems Development (Springfields, University of Glasgow, Scotland). He is Strategic Institutional Partnerships Manager for Mercy Corps Europe and has been based in Geneva since 2016. He has 20 years’ experience in the fields of humanitarian aid and development assistance in NGOs, having worked in 25 countries, including Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Iran, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Tunisia. He worked for Handicap International from 1999 to 2011, at the headquarters then as Head of Mission in Palestine (2007) and Tunisia starting in 2008. Following the Tunisian revolution in 2011, he joined Mercy Corps for its operational launch in Tunisia, where until the end of 2016 he led a team of 40 people which develops and manages a portfolio of programs for young people and women in the fields of vocational training, employment, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion in Tunisia’s South and West governorates.