Louise Vandenberghe

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT LOUISE VANDENBERGHE

I work on emergency humanitarian response and forced displacement, through strategy, fundraising, communications and advocacy.My expertise sits at the point where humanitarian action becomes structurally constrained: politicised migration contexts, protection risks, mental health, donor governance, public legitimacy and institutional accountability. I work on how humanitarian operations are financed, narrated and positioned, and how these dimensions condition access, scale and sustainability.I am currently International Fundraising and Communications Manager at SOS MEDITERRANEE, where I contribute to the design and steering of international fundraising strategies, donor architectures and public narratives for civil search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean. My scope includes strategic positioning, digital and institutional fundraising, partnership development, narrative framing and cross-country coordination, in a context where legality, advocacy and public trust are inseparable.My background spans emergency programming, grants and partnerships with international NGOs and UN-related mechanisms, including senior roles in global surge teams and regional emergency management across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. I have worked on emergency response, migration and displacement at both operational and strategic levels, with responsibilities covering programme design, donor strategy and compliance, localization, protection mainstreaming and coordination with institutional donors.Alongside operational roles, I serve as a Judge Assessor with UNHCR at the French National Court of Asylum, contributing to collegiate decision-making on refugee status and subsidiary protection. This institutional perspective directly informs my approach to protection, legality and accountability in humanitarian action.My work is grounded in protection-centred, transcultural and decolonial approaches, supported by formal training in psychological anthropology and transcultural practices (Université Paris Descartes), community mental health and MHPSS (WHO Collaborating Centre), and critical approaches to cultural bias in humanitarian and migration contexts. I also have a background in humanitarian communication and narrative production, including training in long-form audio and investigative storytelling.I am interested in roles and collaborations where strategy, funding, communication and political analysis are treated as core components of emergency humanitarian systems, rather than auxiliary functions.