Maartje Eigeman

How do you ensure that an organization does not get stuck in good intentions, but really gets moving? That is the question that Maartje helps organizations in civil society with.

With almost 20 years of experience at funds, NGOs, knowledge institutes and governments, Maartje advises on the intersection of strategy and practice. She helps organizations make clearer choices: where do you want to make an impact, with whom, and how do you ensure that a strategy does not get stuck on paper but actually takes root in the organization? She looks just as closely at the hard side — governance, decision-making, structure — as at the soft side: collaboration, ownership and the question of who is actually at the table.

Her specialization is on complex, often politically sensitive issues where diverse interests and perspectives come together. She guides organizations and coalitions in setting up new programs and pilots, strengthening participatory decision-making and setting up governance. She dares to ask about the question behind the question, and is just as at home in designing a process as in sharpening a strategy.

What drives her is the collaboration between diverse stakeholders, with the target group itself emphatically at the table. She does not believe in change that only comes from above: issues that cause problems are solved with the people affected and by learning by doing.