Skills & experience

Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken has worked on international development and civil society issues for 30 years, in practice, in academia and as independent consultant. Before launching her consulting practice, Five Oaks Consulting, Tosca was the Director of the Transnational NGO Initiative at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. There, Tosca focused on the governance, leadership and effectiveness of INGOs, directed the TNGO Leadership Institute, advised 5 major NGOs on change management and worked on evaluation. Earlier, Tosca worked at the European Center for Development Policy Management in the Netherlands, and in Cambodia where she worked for the UNTAC peacekeeping operation, UNDP and PACT. Tosca also served at the World Bank in Washington DC and Vietnam.

Tosca also served as board member of InterAction, Public Interest Registry, Cadasta and ProLiteracy. Since 2019, Tosca still occasionally engages with the Maxwell School as Moynihan Research Fellow. She is a member of the Leap of Reason Ambassadors community, an invitation-based group of senior professionals who promote a performance and outcome orientation among nonprofits. Tosca also is an InterAction Fellow, an honorary, voluntary-based position to help InterAction NGO members explore ‘next generation’ norms they may need to adopt.

Case studies

Tosca helps senior INGO leaders in solving challenging organizational change management, leadership development and coaching and organizational culture and effectiveness issues. Tosca also enjoys strategic evaluation assignments, and she supports social sector agencies in adopting diversity and inclusion strategies, and in tackling gender and leadership issues.