Our approach
1
Co-mentoring,
not hierarchy
Ambora builds working relationships grounded in trust, reciprocity and mutual learning. Our aim is not to “train individuals” for certificates, but to strengthen teams and practices that remain embedded within the organisation.
2
Workplace-embedded accompaniment
We support organisations where day-to-day work actually happens. The focus is on translating experience, ideas and needs into practical routines that are locally appropriate and sustainable over time.
3
A two-way
interface
Ambora acts as an interface between local actors and national/international partners. We help align expectations, clarify priorities and strengthen organisational credibility, without financial intermediation and without political positioning.
Who we work with
We support, in particular:
- civil society organisations (associations, local NGOs, community groups),
- local authorities and public institutions at the proximity level,
- cooperatives,
- micro-entities with a social purpose (for example initiatives led by people in vulnerable situations seeking to strengthen their economic autonomy).
Ambora pays particular attention to organisations that are often left aside by mainstream capacity-strengthening schemes, including those led by women, youth, or marginalised communities.
What this changes
Our ambition is simple: to make organisations more autonomous and more sustainable. In practice, this may include:
- clearer governance (roles, decision-making, accountability),
- more reliable internal practices (processes, basic controls, straightforward management routines),
- stronger ability to structure an action plan, formulate a request for support, or access funding or credit in a credible manner,
- more cohesive teams, able to maintain routines even in unstable environments.
Our approach is intentionally distinct from generic training. The way we monitor progress, learn and improve will be just as innovative as Ambora’s method itself, with a focus on practical evidence of use, routines adopted by teams, and tangible progression over time.
For philantropists
Your contribution supports a lever, not a one-off activity
By supporting Ambora, you invest in the ability of local organisations to endure, to strengthen how they work, and to become credible partners for change. This is discreet, practical, results-oriented support that helps avoid cycles of dependency and repeated “restarts”. We are launching an 18-month pilot phase to test, document and refine our approach in a limited number of contexts, working with organisations selected on the basis of their ambitions, potential and needs.
The co-founders
Ambora was born from the complementarity of its two co-founders, bringing together proven field experience, a clear understanding of donor expectations, and a constant focus on what enables organisations to act effectively over time.
Alexandre Dormeier-Freire
Alexandre is a sociologist of education with 30 years of experience in academia, where he leads executive and continuing education programmes for international cooperation professionals worldwide. He serves on several commissions, including for the Swiss Confederation, the City of Geneva, and a range of international organisations active in international solidarity and humanitarian action. In these roles, he contributes to the recruitment of development professionals, the assessment of projects, and the development of strategic orientations linked to field-based action. He brings to Ambora a practice-oriented approach focused on how organisations actually work: clarifying roles, strengthening collaboration routines, and embedding simple, useful and sustainable ways of working.
Oliver Jütersonke
Oliver brings to Ambora a deep understanding of operational realities across around fifty country contexts, alongside a clear grasp of the expectations of national and international partners. Over the past two decades, he has worked at the interface between field realities and decision-making with local organisations, donors and international agencies in contexts shaped by instability and protracted crises. He focuses on strategic accompaniment, programme design and organisational learning, and his role is to shape the approach, open the right conversations and position Ambora as a credible and non-prescriptive support.
