Amber is a social management expert working with the finance and industry sectors. Her work is focused on the social assessment of investments and providing other related services to augment her clients’ capacity to manage social issues in private sector activities in developing countries and emerging markets. She is currently carrying out a labour training and outreach programme on behalf of the ILO for European development finance institutions, such as Belgian based BIO and Swiss based SIFEM, as well as for Brazilian banks. In this context, she developed a reference manual on incorporating international labour standards in development finance along with accompanying tools. For Ergon, she recently carried out a mapping exercise on “Decent Work” projects and dialogue in Brazil. 

Amber held a senior social specialist position at FMO - the Dutch development bank - for six years. As FMO’s first social specialist, she developed its social management system, including internal communication, training, tools and procedures. In her capacity as social specialist, she assessed client compliance with the FMO sustainability policy, in cooperation with FMO environmental specialists. She would typically assess the highest risk projects that involve various financiers, large investments and complex social issues. In that context she would then commission labour audits and social impact assessments and, in cases of non-compliance, negotiate social action plans with clients. She also initiated a successful annual international meeting for financial sector social specialists. 

Prior to her work at FMO she worked for the United Nations and for civil society organisations and has extensive experience in the latter sector. With a background in anthropology and environmental management in developing countries, she is a typical offspring of the “environment and development” generation of the 1990’s. 

Her professional activities have mainly consisted of: project management; carrying out assessments and audits; research; networking and brokering expertise; lobby and advocacy; training and presentations.

She has worked for longer periods in Europe, Brazil, Mozambique and the Philippines and has carried out missions to numerous countries, mainly in Africa. 

She is an independent, enterprising and creative person with a well-tested capacity for dealing with the interests and perspectives of various and culturally diverse stakeholders.