Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi is a former senior EU official recently retired, with prominent and extensive experience in Europe and in developing countries, mostly in Africa, who covered the positions of EU Ambassador/Head of Delegation to Ghana, Togo and Tanzania and Head of Unit/Division at the European Commission and the European External Action Service.
A graduate of Portici University, Naples, and with a Master from the Sorbonne University, Paris, Filiberto Sebregondi started his career in economics and international cooperation, holding the position of manager of a consulting firm in Italy, conducting expertise for international public and private bodies, including World Bank, the EU, and the UN, with focus on Africa, but also Latin America and South-East Asia.
In 1993, Filiberto Sebregondi moved to Brussels to work as an official for the European Commission's Directorate-General for Development. There, he deepened his development cooperation experience including in Evaluation and in Macro-financial Assistance. He assumed management responsibility in 2002 at the EuropeAid Cooperation Office.
In 2005, Filiberto Sebregondi was appointed as Ambassador/Head of Delegation for the EU in Ghana, including regional responsibility over the EU Delegation in Togo. During his four years of duty, he managed the political dialogue and mediation, trade relations and development cooperation with Ghana and Togo. He represented the EU at the Inter-Togolese political dialogue which led to the creation of a Government of National Unity in 2006, and led the EU support to the highly competitive presidential elections of Ghana in 2008 (the movie “A good Election” on Ghana case is extensively used by ECES in its campaigns and training for peaceful election processes).
In 2009, Filiberto Sebregondi returned to Brussels as Head of Division in the EU Africa Department, in charge of the relations with 16 West African countries, and the regional organisations ECOWAS, WAEMU, and MRU. In this capacity he led EU electoral assistance and political dialogue initiatives (including “Art 96 negotiations” and EU sanctions) in many of the concerned countries, particularly at times of crises and tensions.
In 2011 he was then appointed EU Ambassador/Head of Delegation to Tanzania and the East African Community. His mandate covered overall representation of the EU and coordination of EU Member States; political dialogue; management of development assistance; trade relations; and public diplomacy with the host country. In this role, he led the EU support to the 2015 presidential elections in Tanzania and Zanzibar, including the set-up of a mediation and peace infrastructure in the island.
In 2016, he became head of the EU External Action Service’s (EEAS) Division in charge of the coordination of Development Cooperation.
In this capacity he led for the EEAS the inter-institutional negotiations for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027) and the creation of the Global Europe-NDICI financial cooperation instrument (EUR 89 billion), as well as the subsequent programming of the cooperation resources for the individual developing countries and regions.
After his retirement from the EU at the end of 2021, Filiberto Sebregondi took up a new role as Vice-President of the Strategic and Advisory Committee of ECES, working alongside the other members and the Committee’s President Joelle Milquet, former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium. In the Committee he provides advice and guidance on the strategy and on new initiatives to be developed by ECES for the consolidation of democracy and the prevention of election-related violence around the globe. He participates to ECES projects in the areas of strategic formulation, monitoring of results, quality assurance, and in the conduct of specific Political Economy Analyses and Security Threat Assessments (EPEA and ESTA copyrights by ECES). So far, Filiberto Sebregondi has provided his assistance to ECES projects in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Indian Ocean, Zambia and Mauritania, among others
