Our Team

Our team is key

HR&S is a very firm company, our strategies are profound, but we are nothing without the hard work of our team-members.

Motivation, Professional development & team-building – managed locally

Local team-leaders call for monthly local meetings with the local team. The purpose is team-building, work motivation and individual development of each team-member. Team-leaders shall understand and act on the needs of each team-member. Team-leaders shall offer clear instructions related to each assignment, address any challenge that the team member experiences and ensure reward in the sense of reimbursement as well as personal and professional development.

Composision

Our team is composed of dedicated and professional experts, with a deep understanding and unyielding ethics.

Our team covers a wide range of expertise required for our ambitions mission – the local context, development, scientific research, scientific finding, innovation, enterprising, accounting, cross-cultural understanding, and more.

Our Team is composed of:

  • HR&S Headquarters Management & Operations in Stockholm.
  • Advisory Board of Trustees.
  • Expert advisers.
  • Action10.
  • Local branches operations team in our target countries.
  • RISE Support Centre Coordinators.
  • RISE Support Centre members (PM).
  • RISE Company customers (TP1, 2 and 3).

MANAGEMENT & OPERATIONS

Management

Assoc. Prof. Cecilia ÖMAN, CEO and Founder.

Operations

Communication & Coordination
Ms. Ayan OSMAN, Communication & Coordination officer

Branding & Public relations
Mr. Niclas NILSSON, Web-site coding & safety
M.Sc. Ms. Johanna ÖMAN,  Product Developer

Application developer
M.Sc. Mr. Aran SESHITA, Fullstack engineer.

Photographer in Sweden
Ms. Jennifer ERIKSSON

External Financial Auditing

Ms. Anna-Kari ARMANDT, Armandt Ekonomi & Data AB, Sweden.

Terms of reference

Our operations team is composed of empoyed staff and volunteer staff.

The HR&S volunteer staff agree to operate with unyielding ethics, to offering advice on topics influencing the direction of the HR&S programmes and act as ambassadors. Our Volunteer staff offer to address their different HR&S assignments as much as possible, in relation to their other work assignement.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Richard Hammaskiöld for designing the HR&S and the Action10 logos. We also appreciate Simon ÖMAN for his contributions to the ActionArea team-building and motivation.

ADVISORY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Our Advisory Board members are senior experts offering advice on topics influencing the direction of HR&S, acts as ambassadors, and seek opportunities.

Mr. Anders KINDING coordinates the bi-annual Board meetings.

Board members

Prof. Charles O. AWORH, Nigeria.
Prof. Gnon BABA, Togo.
Prof. Akiça BAHRI, Tunisia.
Prof. Berit BALFORS, Sweden.
Pastor Wilberforce BEZUDDE, Sweden & Uganda.
Priest Anita ELWESKIÖLD, Sweden.
CEO. Anders KINDING, Sweden.
Prof. Paul SAWADOGO, Burkina Faso.
Leg. doc. Åsa SCHLYTER, Sweden.

Assignment period

Board members hold their position for two years.
Thereafter the assignment can be renewed. 
The next rotation is 1 Jan 2021.

Terms of reference

The Board members agree to operate with unyielding ethics and to offer advice on topics influencing the direction of HR&S, act as ambassadors and seek opportunities. All our Board members have passion for driving the programme forward, they are very active and take their own initiatives for the success of HR&S. Specifically our Board member support and help ensure:
User-driven social good. That we capture the expectations of the users of our interventions and adapt to their experiences so that we serve our users in the very best manner.
Identify agency. Board members support by finding the right stakeholders who support social good, sustainable economy, equal partnership and accountability. They look for social entrepreneurs and supporters with a passion for change and who will ensure our strategy for change in actual practice. They propose RISE Centre staff. They also seek opportunities for capacity strengthening of individuals and institutions.
Strategy for change. That we honour our Strategy for Change.       
Social enterprise. The Board members actively contribute to the sustainable economy of the programme. They help develop business models, and then develop and implement our business plan and set up our ventures. The Board members open doors to new opportunities, they link us with their own network of potential customers, supporters and partners as well as seek and nurture new ones. They actively seek sources of funding and ways to financially sustain our RISE Centres and our RISE investment fund.
Accountability management The Board members support awareness-raising and capacity-strengthening on financial administration and accounting so that we can ensure accountability and transparency in ethics and governance for all our interventions.
Evidence impact assessment. To measure whether we have achieved impact, based on scientific evidence.
The assignment is on a volunteer basis and is not rewarded financially.

GOVERNANCE

The HR&S Advisory Board provides mission, financial, legal, and administrative oversight, gives advice to the CEO, and manages itself.

FUNDRAISING

Board members help set and meet fundraising goals.

AWARENESS & VISIBILITY

Board members build and maintain relationships that can help HR&S meet its goals.

TECHNICAL RESOURCES & SUPPORT

Board members have in-demand skills that can help HR&S to overcome challenges.

The HR&S bylaws govern the board’s structure, purpose, and duties. show the Board operates. explicitly outline your , along with its , in your bylaws. 
your board should operate. Here some common structural topics that are
addressed in bylaws:
1. How are board members elected?
2. How many board members should you have?
3. How many votes do the board need to pass resolutions?
4. What roles should board members serve?
5. What terms do board members serve?
6. How often should the board meet?
7. What policies and ethical guidelines must board members follow?
8. What is the board’s purpose?

Expert advisers

We turn to our team of independent  Expert Advisers for advice when advanced knowledge has potential to improve our interventions. Our HR&S Expert Advisers operate with unyielding ethics and offer expert advice  on topics influencing the direction of the HR&S programmes.

HR&S’ mission is user driven social good and we work in close partnership with local stakeholders in Sub-Sahara African countries. Whatever advice we take on, it is always guided by our partners. We are cautious with imposing ideas that dose not rime well with the context and the people we are partnering with. At the same time, we facilitate international sharing of clean knowledge and scientific facts.

Our team of Expert Advisers also act as ambassadors for HR&S and shares about HR&S and about our activites in their network.

Team of Expert Advisers

Mr. Anders KINDING, Sweden.
Leadership.
Leg. Dr., Assoc. Prof. Anna ÅGREN, Sweden.
Medical health.
B.Sc. Charles BALOGU, Nigeria.
Computer Science and ICT.
M.Sc. Courage BOYONNOH SUNDBERG, Liberia and Sweden.
Health and equality.
MSc. Erik GUSTAVSSON, Sweden.
Waste management.
PhD. Giacomo DENTONI, Sweden.
Neuroscience with focus on global health.
PhD. Krishna MURTHY, India.
Training young persons for research – passion, pursuit, and career.
M.Sc. Malin VESTIN, Sweden.
Evaluation planning and quantitative statistics.
M.Sc. Marina VISINTINI, Sweden.
Global Business Development
Dr. Martin BRITS, South Africa.
Application chemistry.M.Sc.
MSc. Mislav PETRUSIC, Sweden
International business & rural development.
Mr. Naimul ABD Sweden.
Business Growth and UX.
MSc. Nancy GITHAIGAH, Kenya
Urban and rural development. International collaboration.
MSc. Nathalie PERSSON, Madagascar and Sweden.
Food and nutrition.
Mr. Niclas  NILSSON, Sweden.
IT and social entrepreneurship.
Mr. Peter ROBERT, Liberia.
Arts and international relations.
Ms. Purity AWINO, Kenya & Sweden.
Administration.
M.Sc Sarah KOK, Sweden.
Sustainable development & social media.
Dr.  Sune ERIKSSON, Sweden.
Application chemistry & Laboratory accredition
M.Sc. Tatenda GWAAMBUKA, Zimbabwe & England.
Law, journalism, African socio-economic development.
Prof. Yvonne BONZI, Burkina Faso.
Research & women empowerment.
Leg. Dr. Åsa SCHLYTER, Sweden.
Psychiatry & counselling.

Terms of reference

The HR&S Expert Advisers agree to offer expert advice in areas of their expertise. The HR&S management turns to the HR&S Expert Advisers when situations arise. Our HR&S Expert Advisers agree to operate with unyielding ethics. The assignment is on a volunteer basis and is not rewarded financially.

Assignment period

Expert advisers hold their positions until they request to resign.

PROFILE OF THE FOUNDER

Cecilia is
innovative, tries new things and is driven by an ambition to act when
she sees misconduct that she believes can be improved. From an early
age, Cecilia was dedicated to contributing to a world that is good place
to live for all humans and animals, and in harmony with nature. Cecilia
began her career at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in
Stockholm and took a master’s degree in chemical engineering with a
focus on biotechnology. She then took a job as a consultant and
researcher at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL, Swedish
Environmental Institute) in Stockholm, where she worked with organic
environmental pollutants in water and with waste management. She
remained at KTH and took a Ph.D. exam targeting organic pollutants and
waste management, in parallel with her employment at IVL. After ten
years with IVL, she left the institution for a job at the International
Foundation for Science (IFS). The mandate of IFS is to support for
research management in countries outside the OECD and Cecilia was
responsible for the Water Resources department. She also managed a
project targeting researchers in non-OECD countries and their
availability to advanced scientific research equipment. She still
remained at KTH and in parallel with her work at IFS, she took an
Associate Professor exam for the Department of Land and Water Resources
with a focus on water management in non-OECD countries. In 2009, Cecilia
founded the volunteer organisation Action10, www.action10.org.
Action10’s vision is a world without extreme poverty through equal
partnership social enterprising and the organisation collaborates with
social entrepreneurs in Sub-Sahara African countries. Action10 is run by
20 volunteer staff and manages 10 programmes in six Sub-Sahara African
countries. After ten years with IFS, she resigned and also took a
part-time job as Deputy Programme Director in Chemical Sciences at the
International Science Program (ISP) at Uppsala University, where she
continues her work with research management in countries outside the
OECD. In parallel with her work at ISP, Cecilia founded the social
enterprise, Human Rights & Science (HR&S),
www.humanrightsandscience.se. The HR&S mandate is to promote social
business cooperation between non-OECD and OECD stakeholders that
benefits from equal partnerships, mutual trust and mutual benefit.
Cecilia has established HR&S Resource Centers in six African
countries and a network of 30 local coaches. Furthermore, HR&S is
involved with 20 programmes in twelve African countries and is
continuously seeking opportunities to scale. Cecilia has developed six
practical strategies and seven “ActionAreas”.  Her work in Sub-Sahara
African countries requires physical presence why she travels a lot.
HR&S offers training and coaching to the private sector,
governmental bodies, academic institutions and development organisation.

Cecilia’s

ambition is to learn from experience, combined with scientific facts,
the knowledge of others as well as lessons learned from her own
mistakes. She reviews information and project status real-time, adjusts
her methods, and shares her findings with others. She is also dedicated
to cross-cultural learning and respect, as well as international human
rights agreements, animal care, and nature care. In addition, Cecilia
develops her spirituality; self-awareness, being here and now, and the
ability to appreciate everything and everyone. As a mother, above all,
are her children, her family, and her friends. She is also close to
animals, her dog, and horses, as well as nature. Cecilia practices yoga,
meditation, nature walks, physical training, dancing,
horse-back-riding, motor-biking, skiing, and more.

PROFILE OF THE Operations team

Ayan OSMAN

Education

Change makers education
Degree Name Agile Project Management
Field Of Study Project management
2019 – 2020

Södertörns högskola
Field Of Study Sociologi
Graduation 2016

Kungliga Tekniska högskolan
Field Of Study Industrial technology
Graduation 2015

Niclas Nilsson

I am a sensible visionary, innovator and entrepreneur who has a strong belief that technology can (and should) be used to create sustainable, safe solutions for both humans and the environment.
 
With more than 16 years of experience in IT and the web, I have had time to encounter many of the problems a user has, both with the computer as a work tool and on the web. I have experience from user support, server operation, installation and configuration of both small and large networks. I also have experience as a web programmer where I developed in ASP and PHP. As development manager and development project manager for web, I have worked with both frontend and backend, development and integration projects. As IT manager and project manager for IT infrastructure, I have supported the IT department and coordinated migrations, new acquisitions, moving to the cloud and scaling up. I have taken most SCRUM master courses and prefer to work agile. As a manager and project manager, I have experience of personnel responsibility nationally and internationally as I have worked with developers and technicians from all over the world. Before I started with IT, I worked a lot with advertising and screen printing. Design of printed matter, logos, web and is very interested in how to create interfaces that attract conversion. Among other things, I have been Teamlead IT infra at Taxi Stockholm’s IT department, IT Project Manager at Brandos AB and had a number of my own companies where I built a website for Nacka Municipality and developed the award-winning service Skolmolnet. 

INTERVIEW WITH THE FOUNDER

What HR&S is, why Cecilia started HR&S (including ”the why” of HR&S) and her own story as an entrepreneur (both successes and setbacks).

How it came about

In her position as associate professor of chemistry at the Stockholm University of Technology, Cecilia ÖMAN came into contact with researchers from poor countries. She chose to work with research supervision at various universities and chemical laboratories in Africa. It became clear to Cecilia that traditional aid was not effective. Cecilia wanted to analyze the development assistance and develop an alternative plan, so in 2009 she started the voluntary organization Action10. Within Action10, she was able to gather her experiences, think them through and implement pilot projects. The alternative plan that Cecilia proposes is social entrepreneurship instead of grant-dependent organizations. The results were positive and the interest was great, so after six years Cecilia registered the company Human Righs & Science (HR&S). Within HR & S / Action10, she developed practical strategies and areas of activity and conducted training, local offices were started in six countries, five coaches in each country were appointed and guided, loans were distributed to ten entrepreneurs, data were collected from the studies and evaluated. In 2021, HR&S intends to expand its training operations and at the same time establish new customer contacts.

The motivation

– I started HR&S because I felt the pain of vulnerable people and felt obliged to do my best to contribute to a positive change. I am a scientific researcher by training so I started a social enterprise, as I believe that locally managed scientific research, innovation and  social enterprising is driving a healthy country and a positive development.

Managing my own enterprise is crucial also because it gives me the freedom I need to think freely, try new things, to be innovative, flexible and able to act fast on findings, it allows me to invest my work-hours, in doing what  I truly believe in.

I acknowledge that I am fortunate and am grateful for being a start-up entrepreneur in Sweden. My  country is very supportive, at all levels…  adminstration, access to support. The challenge for start-up entrpreneurs in Sweden is maybe the tax level, though I do appreciate the social security the Swedish taxes enables.

Concerning HR&S, I have made it my assignment to try to understand the mindset of vulnerable people. To put my self into the shoes of someone who is poor. If it was me, if I was living in a poor village or slum area, with my three kids that I love more than anything, who would I be, how would I think, what would I do? I have tried my best to interact closely, to live in and spend time with people in vulnerable settlements, to listen carefully, reflect and learn. I have also studies the scientific findings about diffrent cultures and how people’s mindset change when societies move from from farming to industry to knowledge based societies.

My stake is that, if it was me, I would know what to do, what I want, but I would be restricted by the lack of opportunities. HR&S aims to be an entitiy that link up with social entrepreneurs, innovators and scientific researchers in environments that lack opportunities and enables them to implement their ideas in their own communities.

From this platform of understanding, have I developed a set of practical strategies and implemented a package of activites.

The strategies include i) a set of core values, ii) means to ensure trust, iii) cross-cultural understanding, iv) evaluation planning, v) coaching programmes on-ground, and iv) assess evidence of impact. 

The imlemented activites are ; i) support centres with support staff, ii) investment fund, iii) coaching programme implementation and iv) real-time collection of monitoring data and assessment of  evidence for impact or no impact.

I have started my initiative in Sub-Sahara African countries, where the number of extremely poor is increasing every year.

I claim that HR&S is in the front-line of a change of paradigm, where we leave the concept of aid behind and become independent stakeholders working truthfully and trustfully together, cross cultures and for a common good.

 

The ”different user layers”, a user story and the everyday problems a certain user of her chosing faces, for example a social entrepreneur in Africa. 

– With a mandate like HR&S, we have to be close to several layers of users. We have:

  1. The local customers of locally developed products and services,
  2. The small and medium scale business owneres, we have
  3. The scientific researchers, innovators and social entrepreneurs.

We are also working with:

  1. A set of supporters; the auditors, the survey managers, the evaluation planning coaches, financial accounting coaches,  as well as the village chiefs, the heads of family and religious leaders. Netx level of users is:
  2. The private sector who are interested in collaboration around enterprising in Africa,
  3. The instiutions who aims for development or investment and also very importantly
  4. Individuals who want Sub-Sahara African countries to grow; it can be leaders, philatropists, influencers, specialists, givers and others.

– A user story can be a social entrepreneur in a ghetto area, burning for helping her people, knowing exactly how, but failing because of lack of the key resources; infrastructure, information, partners, travelling and investment capital. She comes into contact with HR&S, partner up and guides HR&S in which way we can support. Together we agree on a win-win approach where we invest and benefit equally much.

Cecilia discusses with members of HR&S.

HR&S is a zebra, we mix black and white in unique and beautiful patterns. In Sweden and in Africa.

We are hard working and goal oriented,

We talk about the realities, also when they are painful.

We face challenges and we learn, together.

We do not tolerate nonsence, lazyness or corruption, at the same time, we do not judge and we are resilient in case of miss management.

We have love and care and we do not give up.

Honest and frequent communication between all, in Sweden and in our targeted African countries, is key.

Sharing knowledge and experiences, as well as respecting differences in culture, is the cornerstone of success and cannot be emphazised enough.

 

We reach out to and aim to maintain a close relations with all our parntres at all our levels of users.

We work according to our six strategies, thus including i) a set of core values, ii) means to ensure trust, iii) cross-cultural understanding, iv) evaluation planning, v) coaching programmes on-ground, and iv) assess evidence of impact. 

We  implement our four activites in actual practice ; i) support centres with support people, ii) investment fund, iii) coaching programme implementation and iv) real-time collection of monitoring data and assessment of  evidence for impact or no impact.

We are running about 20 programmes in twelve Sub-Sahara African countries.

 

”Headlines from the future” (in ten years HR&S has been a resounding success –

draft a headline and sketch for a New York Times feature of this success).

Our take is that  instead of assuming that innovation in Africa is simple, we expect it to be as big as anywhere else.

A scientific researcher, innovator and social entrepreneur in Sub-Sahara African countries have the same opportunities as in Sweden and therefore contribute equally much to the public and private sector.

New York Times features equally many black change makers as white, because the number IS equal, and their innovations ARE equally important.

The picture shows an amazing innovation, maybe in space or with AI, with only black people, and the focus is not on that they are black, but on the innovation it-self.

HR&S has Support centres in every Sub-Saharan African country, we have the resources to provide all our scientist, innovators and entrepreneurs with the resources they need, and their ideas are developed and implemented, not only locally but internationally