About Yellow
Thread
Labs


Yellow Thread Labs is an ethically-centered, social enterprise. 

We are comitted to working with NGOs, both local and international, UN, Governments, international organisations and civil society to bring new thinking to humanitarian, human rights and development work. 

We support these sectors to ultimately provide better outcomes for those affect. Our work is split across four labs, namely organisational development, learning, responsible and sustainable programming and campaigns labs.

 


Petr Kostohryz

Petr Kostohryz is a development and humanitarian-aid practitioner with over 25 years of hands-on experience in the sector, having worked in the Middle East (Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan), East Africa (South Sudan), South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan) and former USSR (Azerbaijan, Chechnya/North Caucasus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine). Prior to his co-founding of Yellow Thread Labs, his career included multiple senior managerial positions in the People in Need and the Norwegian Refugee Council, as well as work as protection officer with UNHCR and as senior advisor with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). He has also worked extensively as an independent consultant to various governmental and non-governmental institutions worldwide. Since late-1990s, he has assumed multiple non-profit board roles, currently on the board of a think-tank in Ukraine and two NGOs in his native Czechia, where he also lectures at two universities in Humanitarian Protection and Applied International Refugee Law. Petr holds a Master’s Degree from the Charles University in Prague. He speaks fluent English, Russian and Danish and has working knowledge of several other languages. He is married and has one son who was born in Jordan.

Elias Jourdi

Elias Jourdi is a Founding Partner at Yellow Thread Labs, leading the firm’s work on Responsible and Sustainable Programming. He brings close to two decades of experience designing and governing humanitarian and recovery programmes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, with a strong focus on environmental and social safeguarding, partnership-based delivery, and pragmatic risk management. He has held senior leadership and advisory roles with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and has worked extensively across the Middle East, and Africa including Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ukraine, Libya, and Sudan. More recently, his work has focused on strengthening the systems that enable responsible programming at scale, including knowledge management, learning processes, and the development of partner networks. Alongside this, Elias has led the development of Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs) and supported donor-funded grant facilities, helping organisations embed safeguarding, accountability, and environmental sustainability into everyday programme delivery.

Amjad Yamin

A strategic leader with over 20 years of experience in humanitarian action and human rights, Amjad Yamin has dedicated their career to driving change in conflict-affected regions. Amjad has held senior leadership positions, including Director roles at Save the Children (Ukraine, Yemen, Syria) and Deputy Director for MENA at Amnesty International, where they managed large, multi-country teams and significant budgets to advance advocacy, research, and policy goals.

Amjad Yamin is also a highly effective communicator and analyst, with a background as an award-winning journalist for Reuters and Bloomberg. Their expert commentary on complex crises is frequently featured in major media such as The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera. Amjad is currently the Co-Founder of Yellow Thread Labs and a Trustee for the Conflict and Humanitarian Resource Center and Aysar Arabic Quarterly.

Yellow Thread Labs or its individual consultants have worked with and for hundreds of organisations, including: