Ambassador Daan W. Everts

Senior Civilian Representative
2006 – 2007

  • Last updated: 27 Jan. 2015 17:09
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After his studies in social economics at the universities of Brandeis (USA), Baroda (India) and Groningen (the Netherlands), Daan Everts joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague in the Policy Planning Unit. He was seconded to the International Labour Organization in Bangkok, returned to the Ministry and was subsequently posted at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC, dealing with economic and energy issues.

In 1982 he went back to the Ministry to head the private sector development programme in the international cooperation directorate. In 1986, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund, in New York, which specialized in small-scale investment projects in developing countries. This was followed by the appointment, at the level of Assistant Secretary General, as Director of the UNDP Office for Project Services, currently known as the UNOPS.

From UN New York he moved to Rome to become the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, where inter alia he was in charge of the vast food emergency program during the Rwanda crisis. In 1995 he was back at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve as Director General Human Resources during a period when the Ministry underwent a major restructuring. During the Netherlands EU Presidency, first half of 1996, Ambassador Everts was asked to head the European Community Monitoring Mission for the former Yugoslavia (now known as EUMM) in Zagreb. At request he continued in this capacity in Sarajevo under the following Luxemburg EU Presidency.

The Danish OSCE Chairmanship appointed Ambassador Everts as Head of the Tirana Office in Albania, newly established in the wake of the serious civil crisis of the country at the time. He helped to develop a extensive programme to assist the process of democratization, rule of law and good governance. In 1999 the Norwegian Chairmanship asked him to take charge of the new OSCE Office in Pristina. Among many other activities, he saw to the publication of the two-volume publication documenting human rights violations committed by both sides in the Kosovo conflict. He was a driving force behind the speedy establishment of the Kosovo Police School, ensuring its multi-ethnic character and unprecedented gender quota. Under his directorship the OSCE also earned wide acclaim for the organization of the first elections, at the municipal and regional level, and the strenuous efforts to engage the Kosovo Serbs and other communities, both inside Kosov and outside as IDPs, in the process.

In 2002 Ambassador Everts was called back to the Ministry in the Hague to head the Task Force for the Netherlands Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2003 and to serve as the Personal Representative of the Chairman. Upon completion, he was asked to represent the Netherlands at the OSCE in Vienna, in which capacity he was also in charge of the EU Presidency within the OSCEin the second half of 2004.

In short, Ambassador Everts brings with him vast experience and a broad range of multilateral and regional expertise, both at the policy and executive level. He has worked extensively with various international organizations (UN, EU, NATO, CoE, World Bank) as well as many local and international NGOs. In the course of his many assignments he has gained a reputation as a team player, a constructive co-operation partner and an impartial mediator, with a pragmatic, proactive attitude.