Els Haelterman

Director International Partnerships & Country Director Belgium

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Els is director of international partnerships at IDH and leads the IDH Brussels/EU representation office. She joined IDH mid-2019 to manage the Belgian Beyond Chocolate partnership. Prior to her work at IDH, she worked as an advisor to the Belgian deputy prime minister and minister of development cooperation. At the cabinet Els was in charge of the private sector development and private sector engagement strategies, international financial institutions and Belgian’s Development Finance Institution BIO Invest.

She also worked on innovative finance instruments, paved the way for the launch of a first-ever humanitarian impact bond with the International Committee of the Red Cross and was responsible for the Belgian humanitarian aid budget. Before joining the cabinet, she coordinated company projects aiming for local private sector development, mainly in Rwanda, Burundi and Madagascar at the not for profit organisation Exchange and worked as a political advisor in the Belgian Federal Parliament, before starting her career in marketing and sales for an independent Benelux movie distribution company.

Els grew up in the Flemish Ardennes, as part of a family counting many farming households and entrepreneurs and currently lives in Belgium with her husband and two young boys.