Ms Dania CossaEUCAP Somalia, Head of Operations

Dania Cossa currently works as Head of the Operations Department in the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) civilian Mission EUCAP-Somalia.
She has almost 20 years of experience in International & Institutional Relations and managerial experience in critical environments, war and crises areas, multicultural & multi-ethnic contexts.
Her last assignment was Senior External Cooperation Officer, OSCE HQ, Vienna, Austria where she performed, among other tasks, a mapping of the OSCE’s entire range of External Co-operation activities, strategies and priorities.
She has participated in various missions abroad: OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) as Deputy Team Leader (2 years, Donetsk Monitoring team, in charge of operations and reporting); Policy Analyst & Program Coordinator for the Development Cooperation Office, Italian Embassy in Kabul,

Afghanistan (4 years); Communication Specialist and Program Manager for a UN project on preventing human trafficking of young women and children from Nigeria to Italy, based in Lagos, Nigeria (2 years). She has previously been Political Advisor and Head of Press Office for a member of the European Parliament.
She is part of the Italian Reserve List of the Army since 2014, as Lieutenant. She was recalled on duty in a NATO Command, at the Simulation and Validation Centre of the Italian Army (Ce.Si.Va), and she took part to the preparation of NATO Defender Europe 2021 exercise, as well as EU Integrated Resolve exercise. Dania Cossa holds the following education titles: Executive Master of Business Administration at HEC Paris, France; Master of Science in International Diplomatic Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy and a Bachelor of Science in International Law at University of Udine, Italy.