Vegard Bye

Vegard Bye holds a Dr.philos in Political Science from the University of Oslo (2019), and an MA from the same university (1977). He has a life-long history working on North-South issues with Latin America as his special area of expertise. His professional experiences include journalism and writing, solidarity work, civil service (in Norwegian government and the UN), leadership positions in NGOs (Norwegian People's Aid and Norwegian Forum for Development and the Environment), academic work (Peace Research Institute of Oslo – PRIO,[1] Norwegian Institute of International Affairs – NUPI,[2] and the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo), consultancy and senior positions in UN field operations. He was the only Norwegian reporter to cover the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1979, and he subsequently reported on the civil wars in Central America during larger parts of the 1980s. In 1990 – 1992, he was the Head of Norad´s (The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) Latin America Bureau. In 1993 – 1995 he was the Executive Director of ForUM, the Norwegian umbrella organization of approximately 50 NGOs responsible for international civil society advocacy on development and environmental issues i.a. at international summits and conferences. In 1996 he founded and was the Executive Director of the consulting group NORLAT (Nordic-Latin America Resource Group). He was the Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Angola (2004-2008) and in Bolivia (first representative of a new office 2008), in both cases also leading the UN Human Rights country office and being a member of the UN Country Team. Since 2009 he has been a partner with the Oslo-based consulting company Scanteam, leading or being part of a large number of evaluations and other assignments regarding international development cooperation, mostly in the areas of human rights, democracy, good governance, corporate social responsibility, media development and natural resource management.[3] As a consultant, he has carried out almost 80 assignments since 1996, of which 40 as Team Leader, being responsible for international, multi-sector, complex evaluations, particularly in conflict / post-conflict situations (See CV [4])

Parallel to his consulting career, he held a position as Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) at the University of Oslo,[5] where he was coordinating an academic cooperation program with Cuba and worked on a research project on political implications of Cuba's reform process (see list of publications ). This project led to the defense of his Dr.philos degree in 2019, with the following dissertation: The End of an Era – or a New Start? Economic Reforms with Potential for Political Transformation in Cuba on Raúl Castro’s Watch (2008-2018).[6] He served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament for the Socialist Left Party from Oslo during the term 1993-1997 . In 1976, he was the co-founder of the Norwegian Solidarity Network with Latin America (Latin-Amerikagruppene I Norge, LAG), and from 1982 – 1986 he was the first President of the Central America Solidarity Council.