Davide Capecchi

See my LinkedIn profile here.

I am a senior international consultant, facilitator and executive with 24+ years of leadership across education, civil society, public policy and intergovernmental cooperation. I combine practical programme leadership with participatory policy development, capacity building for public authorities, peer learning and knowledge capture. I currently take the role of Senior Key Expert on Capitalisation, Capacity Building and Networking for the EU DEAR Programme (DG INTPA), delivering EU-funded capacity building for Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities across Member States. My profile is directly relevant to cities and urban stakeholders seeking to strengthen integrated governance, social inclusion, civic participation and education-led innovation in local and regional development contexts.

I bring extensive experience in accompanying multi-country and multi-stakeholder partnerships through cycles of design, exchange, learning and implementation. As Chief Programme Officer at KAICIID, I directed global programmes advancing dialogue, institutional learning and social cohesion across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, overseeing more than 200 grants supporting civic, educational and youth-led initiatives. Earlier, as Director of the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA), I managed multi-country initiatives that strengthened public services, participation frameworks and youth information systems across more than twenty European and neighbouring countries. As Secretary General of the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL), I led organisational transformation and a portfolio of Erasmus+ education projects.

I served as Programme Manager for the EU–Council of Europe Youth Partnership, coordinating the Pool of European Youth Researchers, the European Knowledge Centre on Youth Policy, and contributing to the policy environment around the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027. More recently, I designed and coordinated the Union for the Mediterranean Med Youth Lab 2025, combining online learning, facilitation and onsite capacity building for young civic innovators from 14 Mediterranean countries. Since 2022, I have also served as Senior Expert Evaluator and Vice Chair for the European Commission and the French and Luxembourg national Erasmus+ agencies, evaluating approximately 350 projects across Erasmus+ (education, TVET, youth), CERV and ESC — a sustained immersion in EU education and civic-engagement policy.

I am a PhD candidate in Management and Organisational Behaviour at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, where my research focuses on trust, dialogue and institutional learning in cross-cultural settings. I hold an Executive MBA in International Arts Management (University of Salzburg), a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University, an MA in Philosophy, and recent certifications in Public Policy Analysis (LSE, 2025) and Evaluating Social Programs (MIT, 2025). I am fluent in six languages and have worked in over 40 countries.

Core competences

• Designing and facilitating transnational exchange and learning processes among cities, local authorities and civil society
• Integrated and participatory approaches to strategies and action planning
• Capacity building, peer learning and mentoring for public authorities, CSOs and youth organisations
• Governance, multi-stakeholder coordination and institutional development
• Monitoring, evaluation, knowledge capture and learning-oriented implementation
• Strategic leadership of multi-country and cross-sector partnerships
• Translating policy and research evidence into actionable practice for local and regional contexts

Thematic expertise

Education and lifelong learning (formal, non-formal, blended and digital); Global Citizenship Education; youth policy and civic engagement; social inclusion and social cohesion; intercultural dialogue; participatory governance; social economy and education-led social innovation.

Methods and tools

Participatory design of strategies and action plans; facilitation of stakeholder co-creation processes; supporting peer exchange and local learning journeys for cities and local authorities; curriculum design across online and onsite settings; integrated monitoring, evaluation and knowledge capture for implementation and policy impact.