Merve Kania is a research-practitioner specialized on governance reform on the national and local level in post-conflict settings in the MENA. Based in Tunis, she works as an Advisor for Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) on the Decentralization and Local Governance Support Programme for 25 municipalities and the Ministry of Local Governance in Libya. Prior to that, she was a consultant at the Europe, Middle East, and Northern Africa portfolio of the development aid consulting firm GFA in Hamburg, Germany. Her most recent publication “Forging Peace in Damascus: On International Aid, Localized Elite Bargaining, and Insider Mediators” analyses the political economy of reconstruction in Damascus, Syria, and challenges the assumption that ‘sustainable peace’ could only be achieved through top-down macropolitical change. Instead, it promotes a hybrid “inclusive-enough” approach that bears respect to localized needs and political-economies and views them as an entry point for reform discussions. Merve holds an MSc in Middle East Politics from SOAS, University of London and an MA in War Studies from King’s College London.