Jelena brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of international law and human rights advocacy. Her expertise spans EU and international legal frameworks, policy development, strategic stakeholder engagement, and capacity development across complex humanitarian and governance contexts in the Middle East, East Africa, and West Africa.
At ECES, Jelena leverages her multidisciplinary background to strengthen electoral governance frameworks, support institutional capacity development, and integrate rights-based approaches into electoral and democratic reform initiatives. Her field-level insight—gained through positions with Médecins Sans Frontières (Jordan, South Sudan), the International Committee of the Red Cross (Mali, Lebanon), and leading policy institutions—informs her ability to translate international standards into contextually relevant solutions for electoral commissions and public institutions.
Jelena specializes in facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement, designing and delivering capacity-building programmes, and drafting strategic legal and policy instruments. She excels in developing rights-based assessments, institutional gap analyses, and governance frameworks that align with international standards while respecting national sovereignty and institutional mandates. Her expertise includes gender equality and human rights mainstreaming, protection-sensitive programme design, and institutional safeguarding protocols.
She holds certifications in Monitoring & Evaluation, Gender Mainstreaming, and ISO Quality Management Systems—competencies she applies to strengthen internal institutional processes, develop quality management frameworks, and establish measurable indicators for governance reform. Her experience coordinating complex donor-funded programmes encompasses proposal development, results-based reporting, stakeholder coordination, and strategic communication.
Linguistically versatile, Jelena brings fluency in English, French, Italian, and Serbian, with professional proficiency in Arabic—an asset in international engagement and cross-cultural facilitation.
Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to safeguarding, community-centred approaches, and participatory governance, ensuring that institutional strengthening initiatives and electoral reform advance access to rights, democratic accountability, and human dignity.
