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.
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.
Ximpulse is the exclusive licensee of PolitExchange™ – the Competence Center of the Capital Region Switzerland for Governance Study Visits. Through PolitExchange we design, organise and facilitate learning events that aim to make the Swiss governance experience visible and tangible – as a source of inspiration for reflection and reforms.
Making a difference
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 |
| C | Change processes, Conflict Analysis, Conflict Transformation, Conflict Sensitivity, Confederal Arrangements, Constitution-building, Constitution-making |
| D | Decentralisation, Deconcentration, Democratisation, Dialogue |
| F | Facilitation, Federalism, Fragility |
| G | Gender, Governance, Governmental Systems |
| H | Human Rights, Human Rights Based Approach |
| I | Inclusion, Inclusiveness, Institution-building |
| L | Learning Processes, Legal Aid, Legal System, Legislative Reform, Local Governance |
| M | Mediation, Minorities, Multi-layer Processes |
| N | Non-discrimination, Nation-building, Network Development |
| O | Organizational Development |
| P | Parliamentary Affairs, Participation, Peace Building, Peace Processes, Political Systems, Power-sharing, Process Design |
| R | Rule of Law, Risk Analysis |
| S | State Building, State Organisation |
| T | Territorial Organisation, Theory of Change, Transparency, Trauma |
| W | Women’s Rights |
Our process expertise
Based on our experience and expertise we offer a variety of services.
Clients and Partners
We support a broad range of clients with varying roles and functions:
We work with different partner organisations and experts to provide comprehensive, tailored services.
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.
Member of the CEDAW Committee 2025-2028
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.
We enjoy our work – and working together!
Skype: elena.krylova.mueller • Phone Switzerland +41 79 821 46 85; Ukraine +38 (68) 369 39 17 • Email lena.krylova@bluewin.ch
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).
Phone +41 78 615 95 17 • Email cr@corechange.ch,
www.corechange.ch, www.corechange-coaching.ch
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).
Phone + 41 79 105 83 97
Email eva.schmassmann@plattformagenda2030.ch
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.
Email kelly.jane.bishop@gmail.com
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.
Phone + 41 79 788 80 83 • Email simone.prodolliet@bluewin.ch
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.
Email vv@ximpulse.ch
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.
CV Dr. iur. Vijitha Fernandes-Veerakatty
Phone +41 79 910 7467 • Email barbara.weyermann@gmail.com
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.
Phone +41 79 592 86 68 • Email • nora.refaeil@gmail.com
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.
Fri-Ent Blog on Dealing with the Past. Exchange and Reflect: Is it all down to trauma?
Authors: Cordula Reimann and Ursula König, April 2020
Collective Trauma and Resilience:
Key Concepts in Transforming War-related Identities
Cordula Reimann and Ursula König, June 2018
Closing a gap in conflict transformation:
Understanding collective and transgenerational trauma
Ursula König and Cordula Reimann, May 2017
