Work | Gilberto Morishaw

Challenge

People in the Global South and Europe can't get basic financial tools. No savings. No credit history. No democratic way to fund things. Tools that wealthier communities simply take for granted.

Approach

Built community engagement and partnerships connecting Bread's open-source Web3 infrastructure (Solidarity Fund, Stacks savings circles, BreadKit) with frontline communities. Serves on the Strategic Directive Committee guiding cooperative direction. Represented Bread at Dappcon Berlin and Neocypherpunk Summit.

Outcome

$400K BREAD in circulation. $50K+ distributed to public goods through democratic voting. 200+ BREAD holders. Deployed on Gnosis Chain, Optimism, and Stellar. Active pilots with Chain Coop (Nigeria).

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Challenge

Money flows through Curaçao, but too little of it stays. Tourism and remittances pass through and leave. I wanted economic infrastructure that keeps value circling locally, and rewards the work that keeps an island alive.

Approach

I designed impact and equity metrics for a regenerative local economy. As Head of Impact I ran the grants programme: 40+ impact grants funded, over $500,000 in social value added. I took ReFi and Blockchain for Good into meetings with policymakers and ministers, and made the case plainly.

Outcome

40+ impact grants funded. Over $500,000 in social value added. 5 food forests created, 35 mapped. First Kolektivo Festival with 700+ attendees. Represented Kolektivo at COP26, COP27 and the World Bank.

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Challenge

The European Commission wanted genuine youth perspectives in its development policy, from every kind of context. It could have settled for consultation theater. It chose direct advisory access instead.

Approach

Selected as 1 of 25 members from 4,000+ applicants across 150+ countries. The first-ever member from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I advised Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen directly on youth, development, and partnership policy.

Outcome

Two-year advisory tenure. First Kingdom of the Netherlands representative. Contributed to policy frameworks affecting development cooperation across Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific regions. Helped write the first brief for the EU Youth Empowerment Fund (€10 million) and contributed to the design of the Africa-Europe Youth Academy (€15 million EU contribution).

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Challenge

Professional spaces rarely create room for the kinds of conversations that actually shift how people think and act. Networking events are shallow. Conferences are performative. Something else was needed.

Approach

I founded a dialogue series in 2018. Early mornings, real conversations, people from different sectors willing to be honest in ways formal settings don't allow.

Outcome

Running since 2018. Featured in WEF Agenda ('Meaningful Conversations Can Transform Our World'). Active ebbf programme. Model replicated in multiple contexts.

Challenge

COVID-19 hit Caribbean communities in the Netherlands hard. There was no place to connect, no mental health support, no coordinated information. The mainstream Dutch response didn't speak to Caribbean realities.

Approach

Founded Keda Kas ('How are you?' in Papiamentu) during the first lockdown. Built a digital platform connecting Caribbean communities across the Netherlands and the islands through discussions, mental health sessions, and vlogs.

Outcome

Featured on Caribisch Netwerk (NTR). It became a place people could lean on during an isolating period. And it showed how crisis communication can meet the diaspora where they are.

Challenge

People with limited mobility face daily barriers that most infrastructure ignores. The systems designed for the 'average' user systematically exclude those who fall outside it.

Approach

Designed a digital tool helping those with limited mobility navigate urban spaces. Submitted to the Global Shapers Community worldwide Innovation Prize.

Outcome

Won the Global Shapers Community worldwide Innovation Prize. Recognised by the World Economic Forum.

Project page on the Global Shapers Community site ↗

Challenge

The web3 world and the policy world barely talk to each other. Builders don't know governance. Policymakers don't know the technology. Each side decides blind, and the future gets designed in silos.

Approach

I founded Merge Collective as a safe, educational space where policymakers and practitioners can sit down together. Learn each other's language. Test ideas before they get locked in.

Outcome

A community where builders and policymakers learn together. Both sides finally see the whole picture, and the decisions that follow are better for it.

Challenge

The stories of the Dutch Caribbean diaspora in the Netherlands are rich, but you rarely hear them in mainstream spaces. How we got here, and why. The paths of diaspora youth and professionals stay invisible to the wider public.

Approach

I co-curated the original series with Kjelld Kroon, Pakhuis de Zwijger and WeConnect, as equal collaborators, and hosted the conversations. A dialogue series where diaspora youth and professionals sit down and tell the stories that made them.

Outcome

Still running, two to three editions a year, bringing Dutch Caribbean diaspora narratives to a wider audience.

Once Upon A Time: From Eco-Anxiety to Climate Inspiration

Challenge

Eco-anxiety can leave people frozen. Fear alone rarely moves anyone to act. Climate conversations skip the imagination, but stories have always helped people make sense of hard times.

Approach

I created an interactive workshop series built on fairytales, with Meta Pezdir as co-host. We read them, from many cultures and lands. We find the patterns that make them last. Then we use those patterns to write our own climate-inspired fairytales.

Outcome

A workshop series that turns eco-anxiety into climate inspiration. People leave with their imagination back, a sense of agency, and hope for the times we live in.

Original workshop listing ↗

Challenge

Caribbean communities in the Netherlands needed an organisation that carried real weight. One that could advocate for us, coordinate across the community, and speak to Dutch institutions as an equal.

Approach

Served as Chair of the Supervisory Board, providing strategic governance oversight. Led the OCAN delegation in a formal courtesy visit to the Governor of Curaçao (February 2026). Represented OCAN at COP26 as part of the delegation.

Outcome

Stronger governance for a key Caribbean-Netherlands civil society organisation. Credibility that opened doors on both sides of the sea, from the Governor of Curaçao to the halls of Dutch government.

Challenge

The integration debate in the Netherlands had gone abstract. Policy papers, no real human contact. Refugees were being processed, not met.

Approach

Founded Smeltkroes ('Melting Pot'), an impact startup using pop-up restaurants as cultural bridges. Refugees cooked their food, told their stories, and shared a table with Dutch communities.

Outcome

Multiple successful pop-ups in The Hague. Featured in national press. Demonstrated that human-scale cultural exchange could do what policy couldn't.

Challenge

The islands that feel climate change first are usually the last to be heard in the rooms where it is negotiated.

Approach

I went with delegations that had something at stake: Kolektivo at COP26, the EU Delegation at COP27, and ENAR at COP30. In 2024 I addressed the International Court of Justice in the largest climate case in history.

Outcome

Three COPs between 2021 and 2025, an address to the ICJ, and the Reclaiming Climate Justice Summit for Systemic Justice.

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Want to work together?