Expertise in constitution building and power-sharing, governance, access to justice and human rights as well as mediation and conflict transformation. Impulse for finding orientation and clarity, identifying pragmatic ways to move forward, and accompanying you for the next steps.
About us
Ximpulse is a team of independent expert consultants. We work in developing and transition countries as well as Switzerland and the EU. We support stakeholders in reform and peace processes, often in conflict-affected and fragile contexts. Our core areas of expertise are constitution building and power-sharing, governance, access to justice and human rights as well as mediation and conflict transformation.
Our expertise and experience is always available for your reform endeavors. We aim for pragmatic and tailored approaches.
We assist you in dealing with complexity and real-life constraints, assessing dynamics and the different interests of stakeholders, thinking out of the box, and managing challenges in a constructive and sustainable manner.
We make sure you have state of the art information at hand with clarity on options and their potential impacts for informed decision-making. We help you to look at your challenges from different angles and identify appropriate and feasible approaches.
We have senior experts with long-term experience in their field who can provide you with the quality of services you require. We cooperate and exchange with other experts to extend our expertise when needed.
We are familiar with the expectations and perspectives of state and non-state actors, governments and development partners as well as networks and civil society groups. We adapt to different contexts and different counterparts and clients.
Confidentiality is our daily business. We will be as invisible as you want us to be.
Expertise
Effective support to change builds on expertise on topics and on processes. Ximpulse combines both.
Our topic expertise:
A
Access to Justice, Accountability, Autonomy Arrangements
Assessment of and advice on legal drafts, in particular constitutional drafts, legislation, peace agreements, outcome papers of dialog processes
Assessments, advice and capacity-building on approaches related to good governance, access to justice, gender, human rights, state organization including on confederalism, federalism, and decentralization, power-sharing, accommodation of non-majority groups
Development of reform options
Support for the development of policies, government strategies, implementation measures
Support for drafting of legal texts, including constitutional provisions
Support of parliaments, parliamentary committees and parliament secretariats for legislative, oversight and outreach work
Capacity building for politicians, government officials, civil society groups, development partners
We support a broad range of clients with varying roles and functions:
State agencies with legislative, executive, judicial and administrative functions
Non-state participants, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks, civil society organisations
Conflict parties
Bilateral and multilateral donors
International organisations
Private business actors
We work with different partner organisations and experts to provide comprehensive, tailored services.
Team
Dr. iur. Erika Schläppi
Expertise and Impulse for Governance and Human Rights Phone +41 (0)31 332 95 60 • Email es@ximpulse.ch Dr. iur. Erika Schläppi is a lawyer and expert consultant on human rights, women’s rights and governance issues, particularly in the context of development and peace building. Her knowledge of human rights, gender and governance work stems from different professional perspectives, including academic research, international governmental policy, non-governmental advocacy, and many years of consultancy work.
Expertise and Impulse for Mediation and Transformation Processes Phone +41 (0)78 855 87 05 • Email uk@ximpulse.ch Dr. techn. Ursula König is an independent mediator and expert consultant. Her services encompass a wide range of methods for constructive, systemic transformation of long-lasting, entrenched conflicts and guidance of change processes in small and large groups. Her particular expertise lies in complex multi-stakeholder processes in a dynamic, political, and also international environment. She is also engaged in TopikPro.
Expertise and Impulse for State Organisation Phone +41 (0)31 332 95 62 • Email nt@ximpulse.ch
Dr. iur. Nicole Töpperwien is an expert consultant on diverse aspects of state organisation including federalism, decentralisation, power-sharing, inclusion of non-majority groups, in particular in conflict-affected multi-ethnic settings. She has broad expertise in supporting peace-, constitution-making and general governance reform processes. Her academic work on comparative constitutionalism and issues of nation-building provided her with the foundation for her subsequent work with governments, political parties, state and non-state organisations. Since October 2018, she serves as Chief Executive Officer at the Soliswiss Cooperative (www.soliswiss.ch). She remains partner at Ximpulse and supports the team on strategic matters and as a backstopper.
Olena Krylova has an MA in Governance and Development and is an expert on local governance, participatory development and citizen engagement, and decentralisation, particularly in the context of countries in transition. She specialises in governance issues in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. She currently works as a part-time manager for the consultancy company DPI Development Partnership International GmbH (Bern, Switzerland).
Dr. Cordula Reimann works as mediator, facilitator, trainer, consultant, and lecturer in the areas of conflict sensitivity, intercultural communication, strategizing in conflict transformation, gender, trauma, and organizational development. Cordula has worked extensively in South Asia and the Middle East. Cordula founded the consultancy and training firm “core” and the coaching business “core change coaching” (specializing – among other topics – in trauma, conflict & communication, and aloneness/loneliness).
Eva Schmassmann has a strong background in human rights advocacy and sustainable development. During her career, she was working with various civil society organisations. She participated in the Rio+20 conference in 2012 and was a CSO representative in the official Swiss delegation in the 2015 Financing for Development conference in Addis Abeba and in the Summit for sustainable develoment in New York.
Kelly Jane Bishop has a Master’s Degree in Law and is a PhD student at the Institute for Public Law, University of Berne. She is also a research fellow at the Thematic Cluster Police and Justice at the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights (SCHR). Kelly supports the Ximpulse team on various projects in relation to human rights, access to justice and participation.
Simone Prodolliet holds a PhD in Social Anthropology. She worked for almost ten years for a nation-wide operating NGO in Switzerland before she became Managing Director of the Federal Commission on Migration in 2003. Since 2021 she is retired and works as a freelancer for different mandates in the field of migration, integration and human rights.
Vijitha Fernandes-Veerakatty is an Attorney at Law and holds a PhD in international humanitarian law and a CAS in Peacebuilding. She is a legal advisor at the Federal Office of Justice in the field of European law and Schengen/Dublin. She joined Ximpluse as a consultant in April 2022, providing a wide range of expertise, from local governance and federalism to international human rights protection and peacebuilding.
Barbara Weyermann is an expert consultant on women’s rights, gender equality programming and the prevention of and protection from gender-based violence. A second area of her expertise is in trauma sensitive programming and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). In addition, she has worked for many years on all aspects of labour migration, mainly between Asia and the Middle East.
Dr. Nora Refaeil mediates in complex conflicts, designs and facilitates change and organizational development processes and works as a coach and trainer in Switzerland and internationally. A specific focus of her work contains systems change from an equity perspective. As an expert on dealing with the past and reconciliation, she advises governments, institutions, and civil society on a wide range of topics such as truth-telling, accountability, gender justice, reparations, institutional reform, and reconciliation. Nora Refaeil teaches at the Universities of Basel (Dealing with the Past and Reconciliation) and Bern (Academic Leadership, Conflict Management and Communication) and at various other institutions (e.g. Effective Advising in Complex Contexts, Interpeace). Nora is a Senior Associate for Interpeace Advisory Team (IPAT) in Geneva, and Vice-President of the National Commission against Racism elected by the Federal Council. Nora Refaeil is a lawyer and holds a doctorate from the University of Basel and an LL.M. from Columbia University in NY. Nora is also a partner at TopikPro.