Working where
policy meets
people.
Ammar Zakri is a policy and engagement professional working at the intersection of governance, peacebuilding, and climate security in some of the world's most complex contexts.
Currently at
Peace Paradigms
Translating complexity into clarity.
Ammar Zakri has spent over two decades working in and on fragile contexts — not from a distance, but from within. His career has been built on a conviction that durable peace and functional governance are not abstract goals: they are the product of patient, evidence-based, politically literate work done with and through local institutions and communities.
He works at the intersection of policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and programme design — translating what happens on the ground into recommendations that donors, governments, and civil society can act on. His approach is grounded in local realities, attentive to power dynamics, and consistently conflict-sensitive.
Fluent in Arabic, English, and Kurdish, he brings both the technical rigour of international development practice and the contextual depth of someone who has lived and worked through Iraq's most consequential transitions.
The work.
Four interconnected domains that define Ammar's professional practice — each grounded in field experience, each oriented toward practical impact.
Peacebuilding & Social Cohesion
Designing and facilitating dialogue processes that bring divided communities, institutions, and actors into constructive engagement. This means working with the grain of local conflict dynamics — not against them.
Governance & Institutional Development
Supporting governments and public institutions to become more responsive, accountable, and capable — particularly in post-conflict settings where trust between state and society has been eroded.
Climate Security
Examining how climate stress — water scarcity, displacement, resource competition — intersects with conflict and governance in Iraq and the wider region, and translating that analysis into actionable policy.
Displacement & Durable Solutions
Working on the conditions that make return, local integration, and resettlement genuinely durable — not just logistically possible. This requires honest engagement with protection concerns, social tensions, and political will.
Evidence-based.
Politically aware.
Locally grounded.
Ammar's practice is shaped by a core belief: that good analysis is only useful if it is actionable, and that actionable recommendations require an honest understanding of local power, incentives, and constraints — not just technical frameworks.
He brings a conflict-sensitive lens to everything — from programme design and stakeholder mapping to policy briefs and donor reporting. This means asking not just whether an intervention is effective, but whether it risks doing harm, reinforcing exclusion, or missing the people it is meant to serve.
His work with organisations including GIZ, Peace Paradigms, Mercy Corps, and a range of international donors has consistently been oriented toward one goal: producing analysis and recommendations that decision-makers can actually use.
20+
Years in the field
4
Countries of focus
€20M+
Portfolios managed
A career in context.
Selected roles that reflect the breadth and depth of Ammar's professional journey — from humanitarian response to strategic policy advisory.
Senior Policy & Engagement Adviser
Peace Paradigms
Strategic policy leadership on governance reform, climate security, and institutional engagement across Iraq.
Climate Security Portfolio Manager
Peace Paradigms
Led a €3.5M+ portfolio integrating climate adaptation, peacebuilding, and governance across Iraq's most vulnerable regions.
Senior Peacebuilding Advisor
GIZ
Advisory support to the Stabilisation and Reconciliation Network (SRN), a €15M+ programme spanning conflict-affected communities across Iraq.
Head of Office, Sulaymaniyah
Mercy Corps
Established and led Mercy Corps' Sulaymaniyah operations, overseeing $2.5M+ in OFDA-funded humanitarian and development programming.
Organisations & Institutions
Let's talk about what matters.
Whether you're working on governance reform, peacebuilding programming, climate security policy, or displacement response — and whether you're a donor, a government counterpart, a research institution, or a civil society organisation — Ammar is open to conversations that lead somewhere useful.
"The most important conversations happen when the right people are in the room."