He lived in Ethiopia since 2015 but started at the embassy in 2018. Since the 1st of January 2019 the Embassy has a delegated budget for Water. Jelmer is building the portfolio of projects for water with a strong focus on Integrated Water Resource Management. He sees it as his key task to bring coherence and focus to the Dutch water-related activities in Ethiopia and aims to advance Integrated Water Resource Management in Ethiopia and support Dutch expertise in the WASH sector as well.

He further supports the large centrally funded programs like WaterWorX and the Blue Deal programme. In his free time he’s a pianist for several jazz ensembles in Addis.