Calvin College

Faith & International Development Conference

Abikök Riak

Abikök Riak has been working with World Vision (WV) since 1998. As a Program Officer in Sudan, she was responsible for the planning and implementation of relief and rehabilitation activities in a variety of sectors including water and sanitation, peacebuilding and primary health care. She also managed a project that explored the relevance and applicability of conflict-sensitive approaches for WV programming. After Sudan, she worked with the WV Asia Pacific Regional Office as the Regional Peacebuilding Coordinator, based in the Philippines. During that time she was responsible for managing an initiative focused on integrating conflict-sensitive approaches into WV relief and development programs throughout the Asia Pacific region. She is currently with WV US as the Director for Grants Acquisition and Management for Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Her most recent publication is a co-authored chapter that explores the intersection between trauma healing, development and peace-building. Other publications include chapters titled "Mainstreaming Local Capacities for Peace in a Federal Organization" and "What Are We Trying to Develop? Lessons Learned from the Philippines in Community Leadership" in the recently published book A Shared Future: Local Capacities for Peace in Community Development, edited by Michelle Garred. She is a contributing author to Options for Aid in Conflict: Lessons from Field Experiences, edited by Mary B. Anderson. For the past two summers she has co-facilitated a class on peacebuilding and development for the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University.

Before working with World Vision, Abikök was a researcher and technical writer for the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) in California. Abikök has a BA from Bluffton University in Economics and History and a MA in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.