Niklas kabel Pedersen

Niklas Kabel is Partner & Chief Operating Officer at Voluntas. He is globally responsible for the delivery of value to Voluntas' partners through meaningful fact-based and innovative organizational, policy, and programmatic advisory. Voluntas has a global team of 70+ professionals with offices and presence in Beirut, Copenhagen, Oslo, Khartoum, Mumbai, San Francisco, and Tunis.

Over the past 15 years, Niklas has worked and lived as Arabic speaking political process management expert across the Middle East and North Africa region. Before joining Voluntas in 2020, Niklas served as Country Director for IFES where he was responsible for IFES' multi donor program in Libya. Niklas has also been based in Denmark where he was responsible for the overall management of the MENA activities of the Danish Institute for Human Rights - including Egypt, Iran, Libya, Tunis, Jordan, and Yemen. Before that he was based in Amman, Jordan, where he worked on projects in Jordan, Yemen, and in Turkey with the Syrian opposition. Niklas Kabel was also posted in Libya as IFES Senior Elections and Operations Manager where he worked to facilitate the transfer of international experience on electoral management and democratic processes to Libyan stakeholders.

Prior to his work in Libya, Niklas Kabel served as Deputy Director for the Carter Center in Khartoum, Sudan, where he oversaw the international observation mission and led the Center’s political analysis of the country’s elections and popular consultations. In Sudan, Niklas Kabel also worked for IFES providing support to South Sudan’s referendum commission.

Niklas Kabel is P5-rostered with the UN, a member of The Danish Peace and Stabilization Unit – a rapid response roster for the Danish MoFA and International Development Agency – and a cultural advisor on Middle Eastern affairs for the Danish armed forces. He has received training from USAID in Electoral Security and received his masters in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen. Niklas Kabel is fluent in Arabic, Danish and English.