Smruti Patel is a humanitarian and development professional with expertise in facilitating conversations on safeguarding, accountability, localisation and collaborative partnerships. She is passionate about accountability to affected populations and promoting local leadership and is interested in using new more strategic and holistic approaches to ensure more of local voices are heard and influence policy decisions. She is a qualified coach using Human Potential methodology to accompany local leaders, teams and organisations to reflect on deeper attitudes and behaviours to lead to being at full potential. In 2014, she founded the Global Mentoring Initiative (GMI) based in Geneva. It works in collaboration with partners to promote holistic and equitable partnership approaches. She is one of the founder member of the International Convenor Committee of Alliance for Empowering Partnership (A4EP). She joined the IARAN fellowship because she would like to work with others to lead courageous conversations to bring change in the aid architecture to ensure equitable partnerships and sector fit for the future.
Mariana Merelo Lobo
Mariana is a humanitarian and development practitioner with specific expertise in collaborative leadership development, action learning, coaching and facilitation of groups and individuals. An accredited Associate of the Partnership Brokers association, Mariana combines over 15 years’ experience working with international humanitarian organisations in a variety of settings. She currently lives in the Netherlands, with her husband and two children.
Mariana joined the IARAN fellowship because of a passion for humanitarian futures and a belief that the humanitarian collaborative practice needs to be ‘re-sourced’ beyond its existing paradigm. Mariana is also very keen to explore how her own experience and expertise can be put into action, together with other complementary sets of talents and passions.
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