Alana Poole is currently working as a political researcher with the Colombian think-tank Fundación Ideas para la Paz in Colombia, before which she was with CINEP, also in Colombia. Prior to this she worked in eastern DR Congo, firstly with Congolese NGO Foundation Chirezi as head of Monitoring and Evaluation on their community-led justice projects, and more recently, as part of a disarmament project with the Life & Peace Institute. She was previously Insight on Conflict's DR Congo’s Local Correspondent, and interned as Conflict Researcher with Peace Direct. Alana has experience in the West Bank and Northern Ireland, and holds an MA Distinction in Peace and Conflict Studies from Bristol, UK. Her main interests lie in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes, local conflict dynamics, informal governance structures, and locally-led peacebuilding.