Onno Van Manen is currently leading the operation in Bangladesh as the Country Director of Save the Children International since May 2020. Onno has been working as a humanitarian and development professional for over 19 years managing programmes and operations in some of the world’s most challenging contexts. After 2.5 years as Country Director for Save the Children in Afghanistan, he moved on to a new challenge as CD in Bangladesh in May 2020. During his career, he managed and oversaw both development programmes as well as responses to some of the largest humanitarian crises in the past decade. He has been part of the Humanitarian Country Team in various countries. Onno attended the Royal Dutch Naval college after which he completed his Bachelor's degree in Business Engineering at the Technical University in Eindhoven and obtained his Master of Geopolitics and Grand Strategy (and Development) at Sussex University in the UK. He has been passionate about human development throughout his career, starting with Right to Play to support children in refugee camps, policy development in Ethiopia, and supporting the conflict-affected people of Afghanistan. Today overseas both longer-term development projects as well as a large-scale humanitarian response in Bangladesh. Last but not least he has also been a persistent advocate for Education and has overseen several Girls Education Challenge projects.
