Niklaus was SAD's executive director for more than eight years.
What was your role at SAD?
I was executive director of SAD from 1 January 2007 until 31 May 2015.
What is the best memory you have from your time at SAD?
My best memories are to do with the institution’s successes over the years. They include the generous donations made to our projects and the trust that sponsors demonstrated in our work, SAD staff being invited to conferences and seminars around the world as guest speakers, and experiences in the field. Being in project countries, with project partners and feeling the results of methods that we were trying for the first time and had diligently collected data on was wonderful.
Where do you work now and what do you do?
I’m now working as a Regional Advisor for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation at the Swiss embassy in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. My job is to establish an institutional dialogue with important donors on the Arabian Peninsula. Through mutually beneficial exchanges, peer reviews and co-financing of projects in third countries, joint learning processes are put in place, to shape aid in a more coordinated, effective and sustainable manner. Aid effectiveness is key.