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Trust Consultancy & Development (Trust)

NW Syria

Founded in 2016, Trust is a well-established leading provider of third-party monitoring (TPM), evaluations, verifications, capacity building, and data collection services for development and humanitarian programming in Syria, Türkiye, the surrounding MENA and South Asia regions.

With over 230 projects delivered to local and international humanitarian and development stakeholders to date, our activities advocate for the development of the sector’s accountability and ensuring the needs of programs’ beneficiaries are always heard and respected.

We provide insights you can rely on for the integrity and effectiveness of humanitarian interventions.

Learn About Trust

TCD Staff

  • Youssef Almustafa

    CEO

    Youssef Almustafa has over 20 years of management and research experience in the development and humanitarian sector. Since 2000, he has worked for a wide range of organizations and institutions such as government, UN agencies, NGOs, research centres, and the provost sector. He has worked in many different contexts, mainly Syria, Türkiye, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, and others. His main areas of experience are monitoring and evaluation, research, localization, training accountability, and quality of humanitarian interventions.

    Since 2000, he has been involved in more than 50 studies and reports. Since 2013, he has delivered training workshops to thousands of participants from internal and local organizations. He has contributed to many studies and research projects related to localization in Syria and the larger Middle East region.

    In 2016 he established a private consultancy in Türkiye: Trust Consultancy and Development (Trust). Youssef is managing Trust with a focus on third party monitoring and evaluation, research, and capacity development. Since its establishment, Trust has produced more than 180 reports and studies.

    Youssef holds an MSc in Political Economy of Development from University of London (SOAS), UK and an MA in Economic Change in the Arab Region from Marburg University, Germany.

    LinkedIn:

    Youssef's LinkedIn page

  • Mazen Alhousseiny

    Independent Consultant

    Mazen Alhousseiny has more than 10 years of experience in the humanitarian and development domain mainly in the Syrian context and international responses, starting as a field volunteer to a director position for a variety of well-known organisations (International NGOs as well as Syrian Diaspora NGOs). Within these years of engagement, he managed tens of short-term emergency response interventions as well as long-duration and sustained resilience projects in most of the sectors such as food security, shelter, water and sanitation, health, and education.

    Additionally, he is an organisational strengthening expert that combines academic knowledge with practical experience. In 2020, he completed his second master’s degree from the University of Manchester in Organisational Change and Development with distinction; knowing that his dissertation topic, was the external challenges facing Syria NGOs working in Türkiye and the Change strategies needed. He managed several organisational development initiatives that targeted aid workers such as training and coaching, and their NGOs such as policies and procedures development. He is currently working with HelpAge International as capacity strengthening advisor supporting its local partners' organisational capacity.

    He has been part of the establishment team for a working group that advocates for the usage of the partnerships’ principles for NWS. He also led a number of studies that promoted and reviewed localisation in NWS such as:

    • The Evolution of the Syrian Humanitarian NGOs and External Challenges, The Rest Journal, July 2021;
    • Triple Nexus and the Case of Education and Health Systems in the Syrian Opposition Held Areas, Save the Children Resource Centre, June 2021;
    • Empowering Local NGOs: the Story of Syria Relief, ODI Humanitarian Practice Network Magazine, May 2021;
    • NGOs’ Team Empowerment: the case of “Syria Relief”, Syria Relief, Sep 2020;
    • Four Traps that can Lead to Project Failure, PM4NGOs, July 2020;
    • Participatory Methods during Project Identification, PM4NGOs, July 2020;

    And co-authored additional reports:

    • Beyond Barriers: Overcoming Funding & Human Resource Obstacles to Achieve a Localized Humanitarian Response, Concern Worldwide, to be published in 2024;
    • Grand Bargain Localization Workstream Country-Based Dialogue: Northwest Syria Report, NWS NGO Forum, June 2021;