Marion Kipiani

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Marion Kipiani CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Information

Name: Marion Kipiani

Permanent address: 4 Shartava Street, 12th Floor, Tbilisi, Georgia

Telephone:  +995-93-16.28.80

e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Date of birth : 15 April 1981

Nationality: Austrian

Professional Experience

Dates: February 2010 – present

Employer: International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN), 5 Ivane Machabeli Street, 1st Floor, Tbilisi 0105, Georgia

Position: Consultant

Main activities: Consultant on project development and implementation in the fields of civil society strengthening, democratic governance, conflict transformation and peace-building.

Dates: March 2008 – present

Position: Consultant

Main activities: Consultant in the area of democratisation, good governance and conflict transformation with a particular focus on the South Caucasus region. Remunerated assignments include:

  • Overall Project Coordinator for the project “Strengthening European partnerships for crisis response: Civil society peace-building roundtables in Georgia”, funded by the European Commission’s Instrument for Stability and implemented by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights; February-August 2010;
  • Proposal preparation for the STAGE II project (“Strengthening civil society organisations in rural Georgia and Armenia”), funded by the Austrian Development Agency and implemented by CARE Austria; March 2009;
  • Author of the online dossier on intra-state conflicts in Georgia for the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (http://www.bpb.de); September-October 2009.

Dates: January 2007 – January 2010

Employer: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights , Freyung 6, 1010 Vienna, Austria

Position held: EC Project Co-ordinator

Main activities and responsibilities:

  • Preparation and implementation of EC-financed projects (TA, grants and particularly Twinning projects) in the areas of human rights, democratisation and good governance. Responsibilities include the preparation of project proposals and budgets, recruitment of teams of experts, assistance in the negotiation of project Work Plans as well as backstopping support to project implementation.
  • Involvement in all stages of the Twinning project management cycle, including support to the negotiation of Twinning covenants between MS and BC partner organisations as well as Twinning budget preparation .
  • Thematic project work in the areas of civic engagement, civil society strengthening and peace-building.

Dates: May 2008

Employer:  Civic Integration Foundation, Vazha Pshavela Avenue 30a, 0177 Tbilisi, Georgia

Position held: Researcher (honorary)

Main activities and responsibilities:  Involved in the compilation of a study on the political and civic participation of the Armenian and Azeri minorities in Georgia. Conducted interviews with representatives of public bodies, NGOs and minority associations and drafted part of the study. Civil society election observer in the parliamentary elections of May 2008.

Dates: May 2007 – present

Employer: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK), Marstallstraße 6, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Position held: Researcher, Conflicts in Europe Group (honorary)

Main activities and responsibilities:

  • Research and continuous follow-up on political conflicts in the Europe region, specifically on conflicts in the Caucasus region/Caspian Basin, including the conflicts over Nagorny-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
  • Elaboration of reports on conflict developments for the annually published Conflict Barometer.

Dates: November 2004 to December 2006

Employer: Hulla & co Human Dynamics kg, Lothringer Straße 16, 1030 Vienna, Austria

Position held: Project Manager (from November 2005), Project Assistant

Main activities and responsibilities:

  • Project management for technical assistance projects funded by the EC: management of Project Teams and project deliverables, including report supervision, contract and financial management. Project Director for projects with a total volume of >€ 3m in 2006 in the areas of institutional strengthening and economic policy/public finance.
  • Contract acquisition and project controlling, including drafting of tender offers, recruitment of Project Teams, project budgeting, contract management and financial controlling.
  • Participation in the organisation and content development for in-house training activities, e.g. on proposal development and project financial management.

Dates:  August 2003 – January 2004

Employer: International Trade Centre unctad/wto, 54-56 rue de Montbrillant, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Position held: Trainee, Trade in Services Unit

Main activities and responsibilities:

  • Market analyses on the basis of trade statistics and country profiles: preparation of preliminary country assessments prior to the development of projects proposed for bilateral financing and briefing papers for senior staff.
  • Identification of national consultants in project countries, mainly East Africa, the Caribbean and Southern Pacific small island nations.
  • Preparation of the monthly Services Exporting Newsletter.

Dates: September 2001 – January 2002

Employer: Congress Innsbruck GmbH, Rennweg 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Position held: Intern, Professional Congress Organiser (PCO) Tyrol Congress

Education and Training

Date: October 2005 – present (expected graduation 2010)

Institution: University of Hagen, Germany Master of Peace Studies (part-time)

Subject of Master thesis: Georgia and Abkhazia: Determining the Role of Ethnicity in ‘Ethnic Conflict’ (working title)

Dates: October 2000 – October 2004

Institution: University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol, Austria and European School of Economics Lucca, Italy (academic exchange) International Business Studies

Subject of diploma thesis: “A Cluster-Based Approach to Heritage Tourism in Georgia: Sustainable Tourism as a Strategy towards Export Diversification for an Economy in Transition” on-line at http://members.aon.at/mstephl

Title of qualification: Magistra (FH) (graduate degree)

  • Other trainings: Conflict and conflict resolution in the Caucasus, Malmø University, School of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (September 2006 – January 2007)
  • Negotiation training according to the Harvard Concept of Interest-based Negotiation, Vienna Partners (March 2006)

Personal Skills and Competences

languages

German – native (Read, Write, Speak)

English – excellent (Read, Write, Speak)

French, Italian – excellent (Read), good  (Write, Speak)

Spanish – good  (Read), basic (Write), good (Speak)

Georgian, Russian – basic (Read, Write, Speak)

Social skills and competences:

  • Ability to work independently in new professional and cultural surroundings;
  • Demonstrated teamwork competency;
  • Comfortable to work with individuals from various national and cultural backgrounds, high cultural sensitivity;
  • Excellent communication skills.

Organisational skills and competences:

  • Project management and project application experience, including project design;
  • Experience in managing project teams;
  • Organising ability;
  • Solution-oriented thinking.

Technical skills and competences:

  • Competent with Microsoft Windows and Office Suit;
  • Driving license: B.

Additional Information

Papers and Articles: Georgia (Abkhazia); Georgia (South Ossetia); Russia - Georgia, in: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (Ed.): Conflict Barometer 2009. Heidelberg, 2009: University of Heidelberg, http://www.hiik.de

Georgia (Abkhazia); Georgia (South Ossetia); Russia - Georgia, in: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (Ed.): Conflict Barometer 2008. Heidelberg, 2008: University of Heidelberg, http://www.hiik.de

Armenia – Azerbaijan; Azerbaijan (Nagorno Karabakh); Russia (Ingushetia), in: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (Ed.): Conflict Barometer 2007. Heidelberg, 2007: University of Heidelberg, http://www.hiik.de

Civic Engagement, in: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (Ed.): The Role of Human Rights in Governance Assistance (publication by the United Nations Development Programme forthcoming)

Incomplete Democratic Transition and Conflict Escalation in the South Caucasus: The Case of Nagorny-Karabakh (not published)

European Union Strategies for Conflict Transformation in Transnistria (not published)

Conference Participation: 7th Central & East European International Studies Association Convention, St Petersburg (Russian Federation), September 2009. Chairperson of the panel “New Practices Along Old Borders”. Paper presentation: Georgia – The Importance of Territoriality in a Region of Shifting Borders (Panel “Post-Communist Divides in Central and Eastern Europe)

Freiburg Conference on the Impact of the European Union in Consolidating Democracy in Eastern Europe, Freiburg (Germany) August 2008. Paper presentation: A New “Frontier of Democracy”? The Impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy on Democratisation in the Wider Black Sea Region.

Membership of professional associations:

  • Austrian Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs / United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria (UNYSA-Austria);
  • Freiburger Forschungsgruppe Europa (FFE – Freiburg Research Group on Europe);
  • Central & East European International Studies Association (CEEISA).

Volunteer experience: UN Online volunteer for various NGOs, e.g. the Bureau for Reconstruction and Development – Afghanistan. UN Online Volunteer of the Year Team Award 2007.

References: available on request