Most digital government strategies start in the wrong place. They begin with services: portals, apps, dashboards. Ukraine started with people. That is the gap most donor strategies have yet to close. Ukraine flips this logic and treats digital literacy as a universal competence, similar to reading, writing or basic civic education. Diia.Education, Ukraine’s national digital … Read more
(tl;dr) EU–Kenya Digital Partnership boosts connectivity, skills and innovation, linking youth, schools and SMEs to affordable high-speed internet, AI collaboration and new digital jobs for sustainable, shared growth. Kenya has become the first African country to establish a formal Digital Dialogue with the European Union, a milestone reached in March 2026 that positions this East … Read more
(TL;DR) This issue paper by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) argues that the 2025 USAID stop-work order was not merely an external shock but the predictable consequence of deeply entrenched dependency mindsets within West African civil society organisations (CSOs). The paper diagnoses five limiting thought patterns that hinder resource mobilisation and long-term sustainability, … Read more
(TL:DR) Local knowledge is a city’s hidden strategic asset: when municipalities, communities, universities and businesses connect what they already know, they can drive transformative learning, social innovation and more resilient urban development, instead of relying mainly on imported expertise. The article concludes that urban practitioners should start with mapping existing knowledge, value qualitative methods, design … Read more
(TL;DR) Evaluations are no longer judged primarily by methodological rigor, but by how effectively their findings are communicated and used in decision making. In Germany’s current context of budget cuts, political polarization, and institutional reform, evaluation is gaining strategic importance as a tool for evidence-based steering, while also facing new risks such as political misuse … Read more
Building Competence Across Borders: Karsten Weitzenegger and I.M.M.A. Effective consulting in international development goes hand in hand with rigorous, practice-oriented capacity building. That is why Karsten Weitzenegger is registered as an Individual Expert with the International Management & Marketing Academy (I.M.M.A.) — a Hamburg-based institution with decades of experience developing professional competencies across sectors and … Read more
Karsten Weitzenegger is a member of NORRAG, the Global Education Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute and one of the world’s leading networks for international policies and cooperation in education and training. What Is NORRAG? NORRAG traces its roots to 1977 as the Research, Review, and Advisory Group (RRAG), originally funded by the International Development … Read more
Karsten Weitzenegger is a personal member of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) since 1998 — a professional affiliation that has shaped his engagement with European and global development scholarship for over two decades. What Is EADI? EADI, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes, is the prime professional … Read more
Review: “Communities of Practice within and across Organizations. A Guidebook” (2nd edition) by Etienne Wenger-Trayner, Beverly Wenger-Trayner, Phil Reid and Claude Bruderlein Most books on organizational learning describe what communities of practice are. This one tells you how to run them. The second edition of the CoP Guidebook, co-authored by four practitioners across corporate, academic, … Read more
The following references reflect a track record of Karsten Weitzenegger built over more than 30 years of consulting and evaluation work across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Capacity Development & Facilitation Germany: Delivered GIZ staff trainings on minimum standards for integrity and misconduct reporting access as Trainer, funded by BMZ via GIZ. Germany: Facilitated … Read more
Key Takeaways from the 4th DC dVET BarCamp On 24 February 2026, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and development partners gathered at the 4th BarCamp co-hosted by DC dVET and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to address a pressing question: how can we build resilient and sustainable financing models for dual vocational education and training (VET) in … Read more
(tl;dr) East Africa’s startup scene is booming – but many incubators and accelerators are stuck in a cycle of donor dependence, generic programmes and weak investor trust. A new William Davidson Institute study maps these system failures and, more importantly, presents 25 concrete solutions: from revenue-generating “acceleration as a service” and sector‑specific support, to venture … Read more
