About

We help organizations build effective systems and deliver meaningful results in conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

As a boutique consultancy, we work with companies, civil society organizations, and donors operating in conflict-affected and high-risk environments. We help our clients design responsible, context-sensitive, and legally robust systems and translate them into practice in ways that deliver tangible and sustainable results.

Our Perspective

What Drives Us

Our Motivation

We envision a world where complexity is not an excuse for ineffective systems, but a catalyst for better and more responsible solutions.

Today's operating environments are becoming increasingly complex. Conflicts are becoming protracted, working and living conditions remain precarious, public institutions are often weak or overstretched, and access to critical resources is becoming less predictable.

At the same time, expectations from regulators, donors, investors, and the public continue to rise. Yet in many cases, there remains a significant gap between these expectations and the realities on the ground. Information is incomplete, systems are not designed for fragile contexts, and interventions often struggle to achieve meaningful impact.

As a result, considerable resources are invested without delivering the intended outcomes.

Our Approach

We believe that even in complex and fragile environments, organizations can achieve better outcomes.

Effective decision-making, accountability, and meaningful impact are possible when structures, processes, and decision-making frameworks are designed for the realities in which organizations operate.

This is the purpose behind arise consulting:

We support companies and civil society organizations in building functional systems and effective approaches that enable them to remain operational, accountable, and impactful even in highly complex environments.

What “arise” Stands For

The name “arise” represents resilience, transition, and recovery. It reflects the ability to remain effective under challenging conditions, strengthen institutional capacities, and continuously adapt and improve systems in response to changing realities.

Our Impact Approach

Our Theory of Change

Practical understanding of legal requirements, organizational policies, and the operational environment

Lean, functional, and context-appropriate systems

Continuous monitoring of effectiveness and performance

Result

Reliable operations and the delivery of responsible, effective, and sustainable outcomes

How We Work

Our work is guided by four methodological principles. They shape how we analyze complexity, structure decisions, and develop practical solutions that stand up to real-world challenges.

Context-Sensitive

We start with the realities of your organization and the specific challenges you face.

Conflict-affected and high-risk areas are characterized by shifting power dynamics, limited access to information, and rapidly changing conditions. We therefore work with available information and existing structures, analyze developments, listen carefully to stakeholders, and challenge assumptions where necessary.

This allows us to identify relevant risks and needs while ensuring that strategies and actions are grounded in reality.

Systems-Oriented

Human rights risks and operational challenges emerge within systems.

For this reason, we look beyond individual activities and focus on the underlying structures that shape outcomes, including decision-making processes, accountability mechanisms, information flows, and incentive systems.

This enables us to build resilient systems that function under pressure and support responsible and effective performance.

Translating Standards into Practice

Regulatory requirements, donor expectations, international standards, and internal commitments only create value when they are translated into practical decision-making and operational processes.

We help organizations determine what responsible and legally defensible action looks like in their specific context and develop clear, actionable pathways that reconcile external requirements with operational realities.

Implementation-Oriented

The operational realities of conflict-affected and high-risk environments are often volatile and uncertain. We therefore design solutions that remain workable under conditions of limited access, time pressure, and instability. For us, success means that approaches are applied in practice and deliver results - not simply that they are documented.

Our engagements do not follow a predefined formula. Depending on your starting point, we may build on existing assessments, engage directly with specific challenges, or provide targeted support in selected areas.

Dr. Silja Aebersold

Founder & Principal Advisor

Dr. Silja Aebersold is a Swiss lawyer and advisor specializing in conflict and high-risk areas. For more than a decade, she has worked with local and international civil society organizations, donors, and businesses across the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and the United States on issues related to human rights, organizational development, accountability, safeguarding, conflict-sensitive operations, and human rights due diligence.

She holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) in International Human Rights Law from American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. Her doctoral research focused on strengthening legal protection frameworks for indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Latin America.

Throughout her career, Dr. Aebersold has advised organizations operating in complex environments on how to navigate the intersection of human rights, legal obligations, organizational realities, and conflict dynamics. Her work has included strengthening safeguarding systems, supporting organizational development and localization processes, designing accountability and documentation mechanisms, managing donor-funded programs, developing successful funding proposals, and advising companies on human rights due diligence.

Dr. Aebersold's work is characterized by the ability to translate complex legal, regulatory, and organizational challenges into practical and context-sensitive solutions. Rather than relying on standardized approaches, she works closely with clients to understand their specific realities, capacities, and objectives and develops strategies that are both academically rigorous and operationally feasible.

Education

Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), American University Washington College of Law, United States (2020)
Master of Law, University of Lucerne, Switzerland (2012)
Bachelor of Law, University of St. Gall, Switzerland (2010)

Languages

German (native)
English (fluent)
Spanish (fluent)
French (fluent)

Publications

Afro-Descendant or Black Communities in Research Handbook of Collective Rights (Jessika Eichler & Miodrag Jovanović, to be published soon).
Afro Communities’ Struggle for Land Rights in Latin America: A New Approach to Protect their Lands in the Inter-American Human Rights System, 63 Harvard Int’l L. J. Online (2022).
The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Descendants in Central America in Legal Status of Indigenous Peoples in Russia and Foreign Countries (Ruslan Garipov et al., 2021) [Russian].
Implementing Human Rights in Afro-Descendant Communities in Colombia and Nicaragua: An Analysis of Selected Human Rights Claims at the Intersection of Legal Orders, S.J.D. Dissertation (2020).

Where We Work

We operate in conflict-affected and high-risk contexts worldwide.

Our work combines direct field experience with an established network of trusted local experts, enabling us to provide context-sensitive analysis and support across diverse regions.

Write to us

Phone

+49 179 162 4973

E-Mail

info@theariseconsulting.com