Donny Meertens

Donalda Jeanine "Donny" Meertens (born 1946) is a Dutch academic, Colombian policy and development advisor, and a co-founder of the Programa de Estudios de Género, Mujer y Desarrollo (Gender, Women and Development Studies Program) at the National University of Colombia. Educated in the Netherlands, Meertens studied land rights in Colombia becoming interested in how the exploitation of rural peasants increased violence in the country. She moved to Colombia to assist with development programs in the early 1990s and has held a number of posts with United Nations agencies. She also served as the research coordinator for the Comisión Nacional de Reparación y Reconciliación (National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation). She has worked as a professor at the National University of Colombia and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Her work has centered on rural displacement, gender inequalities, and the links between violence and the land.