John Y. Jones has been engaged in global justice work for numerous years. In 2007 he was a co-founder of Networkers SouthNorth and today heads the Dag Hammarskjöld program at the Swedish Cultural Centre Voksenåsen in Oslo. Together with a broad international network of activists, researchers, politicians and organisations, especially in the global South, this programme aspires to be a Nordic “listening post towards the South”. It provides impulses to Norway and the other Nordic countries working with groups like Peace for Life (International peace network), Women for Change (Zambian gender network) and the whistleblower network Accuracy in Reporting with i.a. Daniel Ellsberg and Jessica Radack.
John is cand.philol from the University of Oslo in religion and sociology, and majored in American language and culture with a focus on Jewish American literature. After graduating he started out as a teacher and then spent some years as information manager at UNICEF-Norway, consultant and director at Diakonhjemmet International Centre in Oslo (DIS) and Institute for Global Networking, Information and Studies (IGNIS) working i.a. with participatory evaluation and development.