Your team
Voices That Count is a collaborative network of experts and practitioners who use narrative approaches to understand complex realities within organisations or projects. Through our work we generate actionable insights and stimulate collaboration for social impact.
Steff Deprez
Steff has a passion for developing and applying practical, hands-on monitoring and decision-making methodologies. As an international development practitioner, he specialises in the design and rollout of complexity-aware monitoring systems. His work is inspired by the principles and practice of Outcome Mapping, Outcome Harvesting and SenseMaker.
Steff has lived and worked in Zimbabwe and Indonesia, supporting educational and agricultural development programmes. He is now based in Leuven and helps organisations and companies with action research, monitoring and impact assessments using outcome-based and narrative sensemaking approaches.
Always up for a chat, sharing ideas or making plans at Mister Bean in Leuven or Brewdog in Brussels.
Nele Claeys
Friends say that she’s the most curious one among them. It is this curiosity that made her decide to take a Master’s degree in African Studies and – as a result of working on her thesis – become familiar with discourse analysis. Her professional background is related to communication and guiding participatory processes. With a touch of HR.
Nele worked for the NGO Rikolto as international communications coordinator. She guided the organisation through a repositioning and rebranding process that involved eight offices worldwide. It was through her work at Rikolto that she got to know SenseMaker, its empowering aspect of sharing personal stories and its added value in communicating about social impact.
Nele lives in Ghent, Belgium, and can often be found in one of the OR coffee bars enjoying a special cup of Kivu coffee and reconnecting with the amazing people and nature in this part of Africa.
Claudia Van Gool
Claudia has a communications background and holds a Master’s degree in Cultures and Development Studies. She has been involved with SenseMaker since 2012, especially in Youth Empowerment and Value Chain/Inclusive Business, when she worked for the international NGO Rikolto in South America.
Claudia is experienced in training and in coordination of data collection at community level and in remote areas (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Uganda), as working with and for people is what she enjoys most.
Based in Lima, Peru, she likes to work and relax at Tostaduría Bisetti (great coffee) and el Cacaotal (amazing chocolate). Coffee and chocolate are not just a gastronomic passion for her, however, as she is committed to making these value chains more sustainable and profitable for producers, and enhancing excellence in both products.
Els Meersschaert
Before joining Voices That Count, Els has worked over 20 years in the cultural, youth and social sector in Belgium. Gradually she discovered her passion for participatory processes. She explored the fields of organisational development, quality management, training processes, working with volunteers, writing etc. Throughout the years she got convinced of the power of connection between people. She really likes to work with groups, to build a common dream that lives in the members of a community, a team, a company, an organisation.
Creating connection through meaningful conversations, making visible the individual and collective intelligence that is present in a group, and jointly discovering and appreciating what works... this is what gives her energy. To do this, she usually starts from the stories of people, the moments they lived, and the meaning these stories have for them.
Always on the move. With people. That's how Els lives her life. Always ready to meet for a chat, good food, a coffee or a drink.
Aline Brachet
Aline’s commitment is all about accompanying organisations and helping them adapt to the complex reality in which they operate, mostly in areas affected by conflict or extreme natural events. Her background combines development project management and policy-making at local, EU and international level. She loves working with networks and teams: developing capabilities, rethinking organisations and mediating in difficult conversations.
At Appia-Capacity, she designs and facilitates peace-oriented processes. Starting from the existing dynamics within organisations, networks and project teams, she guides them towards sustainable change, be it NGOs in Sahel, ministries of livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa or European humanitarian aid agencies in Syria.
Working with narrative approaches is the best way she has found to understand complexity, keep people centre-stage and make decisions that respect long-term dynamics. This is why she has joined Voices That Count: to create space for all voices to be heard and valued, especially in conflict situations.
Clermont-Ferrand in France is her base camp, and as a mother of four, she works from home when not visiting her partners abroad.
