ECMI Flensburg boasts an international team of researchers and conflict management experts backed up by an administrative infrastructure with experience in organizing international conferences, meetings and training seminars. Amongst its Flensburg-based staff, this project was administered by:

Eben Friedman (USA)
Project Leader

Senior Research Associate. After spending two years conducting fieldwork in Macedonia and Slovakia, he completed his PhD in political science at the University of California, San Diego in September of 2002. The title of his dissertation was “Explaining the Political Integration of Minorities: Roms as a Hard Case.” He also holds an MA in political science from the Johns Hopkins University.

---

In Macedonia, ECMI has operated a Regional Office since early 2001. The Regional Office Team,
which took an active role at all phases of the project, is led by:

Sunoor Verma (India)
Project Consultant

A cardiac surgeon by training, Dr. Verma is also an expert on project management, proposal writing, fundraising, negotiation, and organizational sustainability. After serving as medical advisor to the UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) Humanitarian Evacuation Program during the 1999 Kosovo refugee crisis, he worked as a project management consultant to the Center for Refugees and Forced Migration Studies in Skopje. Since joining ECMI in January 2001, he has led the formation of the ECMI NGO Network for the Improvement of Interethnic Relations in the Republic of Macedonia and the development of the Network into a resource for other national and regional initiatives.

---

Support in project implementation was provided by two local Research Assistants:

Gjulten Dalipovska (Macedonia)
Research Assistant

Third-year law student at the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. Since she began university, she has also worked in various Romani NGOs in Skopje, as well as in then Open Society Institute – Macedonia’s Women’s Program. Ms. Dalipovska also serves as coordinator of a group of young Romani women conducting a critical examination of the role of female virginity in contemporary Romani life. Her last engagement before joining the ECMI Project Team was as an intern in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.

Robert Rustem (Macedonia)
Research Assistant

Final-year student at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Skopje. Active in the NGO sector in Macedonia since his secondary school career, he now works as a trainer for the Nansen Dialogue Centre in Skopje, as well as for the Council of Europe. Additionally, since October 2003 Mr. Rustem has hosted a weekly broadcast on Macedonian state television concerning ongoing projects in the NGO sector. He also serves as a consultant to the Association of Romani Women and Youth “Luludi”