Editorial

Osama Hafiz

With a Master's in Global Health focused on Conflict and Security, Osama is committed to redefining humanitarian discourse through the lens of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. His academic pursuits explore the interplay of the humanitarian and development nexus, particularly regarding primary healthcare in areas affected by conflict. As a Project Manager with a humanitarian organisation, Osama oversees medical outreach projects dedicated to bridging the gap in health service access for marginalised communities globally, firmly believing in integrated, person-centred services. Osama believes in the power of diplomacy, as he aims to leverage diplomatic approaches to dismantle silos between the humanitarian, development and peace domains. Joining IARAN, he commits to their strategic foresight and analysis mission in the humanitarian field, eager to develop innovative solutions for complex challenges

Miguel Castillo

Miguel Castillo is a Health professional with more than ten years of experience across a variety of settings, including conflict-affected areas, migration or protracted crises. Miguel has supported delivering health programming across the globe, including in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Iraq, among others.

Specialized in implementing comprehensive health programs within humanitarian interventions, and deeply committed to exploring innovative digital health solutions in these challenging contexts, Miguel is continuously exploring transformative approaches to strengthen and fortify health systems, with an unwavering dedication to improving healthcare outcomes and adopting patient-centered approaches.

When outside of work, Miguel keeps busy with his energetic toddler daughter and challenging himself to be prepared to run a half-marathon.


Gianluca Ranzato

Gianluca is a development and humanitarian professional with more than 20 years of experience in the sector. After graduating in Agricultural Sciences, devoted himself to study Cultural Anthropology and Humanitarian Leadership. Gianluca has worked oversee for 12 years (Mozambique, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar) with local civil society actors strengthening vision, strategy and networking.

Since 2014 he works for Save the Children Italy where he is now Humanitarian Strategist. His areas of specialization are People Surge Capacity, Preparedness and Anticipatory Action, Humanitarian/Development/Peace Nexus and Localization. More recently he has been focusing his studies and work on foresight based strategic thinking.

Gianluca is married to Cecilia and father of Eva and Elia and plays in a noise punk band.

Marta Persiani

Marta has about 15 years of experience working in the Development and Humanitarian sectors, mainly in Management, Quality and accountability, both in INGOs and in the UN. She is currently the Head of Programmes Management and Development in Save the Children Italy - supporting the organisation’s Localisation and Partnership focus - while consulting independently on M&E, Accountability to Affected Populations, Safeguarding and Prevention of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.

She strives to continuously change observation points, as a means to inclusion, relevance and accountability, and to challenge (hers and others’) personal and professional assumptions towards growth and coherence. She does so by diversifying her professional careers (including, for instance, collaborating with Universities in Bologna - Italy and Reykjavik - Iceland), to nurture a wide while detailed vision.

Marta has decided to join IARAN as she views it as an opportunity for ongoing learning and exploration. She also believes that a stronger strategic sectoral reflection is essential for ethical, relevance, and efficiency reasons, and emphasizes the need for continued connections within the wider ecosystem beyond our sector.

Max Santana

Max Santana specialises in strategic foresight, drawing on his experience in intelligence and risk consulting. Prior to joining IARAN, Max held research positions at Control Risks and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), a public policy think tank in Mexico City.

Max also has teaching experience in strategic foresight. He has tailored strategic foresight courses for international relations students at Tec de Monterrey and shares his expertise in strategic planning with students on the Specialty for Tomorrow programme at CENTRO, a university specialising in creative industries in Mexico City.

Leonie Le Borgne

Leonie works as a Technical Advisor in the Anticipation team of the Start Network which forecasts, funds, and mitigates predictable disasters around the world. Leonie's role centres on growing networks of pre-emptive thinkers at national, regional and global levels.

Leonie joined the IARAN fellowship because she believes that if we join forces from across the humanitarian sector and beyond, integrating new perspectives and thinking long-term, we can change it for the better.

Francois Bourse

François is is the Director of studies at Futuribles, a Paris based international, independent, private non-profit organization network on future studies that we have worked with in the past. He is also an Associate Professor at Cnam, a member of the innovation teaching team, the Research Chair of prospective and sustainable development.