Stabilization & Reconstruction

What Europe can learn from business environment reform in the Western Balkans

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The European Union and the Western Balkans are not separated by a simple divide between good and bad regulation. Across countries, governments have adopted regulatory impact assessment, public consultation, digital services and administrative simplification. The more consequential difference lies in consistent implementation across the full regulatory cycle. EU Member States generally have stronger systems for … Read more

Learning from Ukraine means going Digital Skills First

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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

From Aid Shock to Resilient Systems: Civil Society Sustainability in a Shifting Development Finance Era

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(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

Evaluation Insights: EU Recovery and Resilience Facility

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming (TL;DR) The EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EU’s EUR 723.8 billion pandemic recovery instrument, is broadly on track at its halfway point. By end 2023, EUR 225 billion had been disbursed and roughly 75% of planned milestones met, with economic modelling projecting a GDP boost of up … Read more

Skills on the Move: Key Takeaways from the DC dVET BarCamp

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(TL;DR) On 6 May 2026, the DC dVET kicked off its anniversary BarCamp webinar series with “Skills on the Move: How Migration Intersects with Dual VET”. Keynote speaker Helen Dempster (CGD Europe) argued that TVET investments and labour mobility pathways must be designed together from the start, not treated as separate tracks. A panel covered … Read more

Evaluation Insights: Strengthening Ukrainian SME Competitiveness Under Wartime Conditions

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming ReACT4UA / EU4Business — Central Project Evaluation GIZ, Commissioned by BMZ | Co-financed by the EU and Norad | Ukraine | 2020–2025 Context Ukraine’s path toward EU accession has unfolded against the backdrop of one of the most severe crises in contemporary European history. The ReACT4UA / EU4Business … Read more

Global Gateway as Geopolitical Tool: What Changes for Development Policy

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Europe’s latest Foreign Affairs Council in its Development configuration on 18 May 2026 marks a quiet but significant shift: EU development cooperation is being recast as a geopolitical tool, with Kaja Kallas openly calling for aid, trade and security partnerships to be more tightly aligned with Europe’s strategic interests. A development council in a new … Read more

Rebuilding Trust Before Rebuilding Walls: Social Cohesion Lessons from Irpin, Ukraine

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Physical reconstruction alone will not restore Ukraine. Evidence from war-torn Irpin shows that without deliberate investment in civic trust, bricks and mortar risk becoming monuments to elite capture rather than pillars of democratic recovery. The German Platform for the Reconstruction of Ukraine recently hosted the event Reconstructing Trust: Social Cohesion and Recovery in War-Torn Irpin. … Read more

Supporting Internally Displaced Businesses

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A methodology for stabilization and reconstruction, drawing on Ukraine’s experience, local economic development practice, and gender-responsive programming. Framing the Challenge When war displaces not only people but entire enterprises, the economic fabric of a country tears in ways that humanitarian aid alone cannot repair. Ukraine’s full-scale war since 2022 has produced one of the most … Read more

Standing Up for Multilateralism: Karsten Weitzenegger and the United Nations Association of Germany

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Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen e.V.

Global challenges require global governance. Since January 2016, Karsten Weitzenegger has served as a member of the Präsidium of the DGVN Landesverband Nord — the regional governing body of the United Nations Association of Germany (UNA-Germany / Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, DGVN) for Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Schleswig-Holstein. What is UNA-Germany (DGVN)? Founded in … Read more

New Tools for Feminist Evaluation Practice

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The Feminist Innovation in Monitoring and Evaluation (FIME) Small Awards have produced something very tangible for practitioners: six concrete toolkits that cover the full evaluation cycle, from policy design and crisis response to relocation, community projects, impact investing, and evaluator training. They were developed in real-world settings and respond to gaps most of us know … Read more

Portfolio: Stabilization & Reconstruction

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World map with 40+ project locations marked

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. Stabilization & Reconstruction Jordan: Conducted the central project evaluation of E4DE entrepreneurship and employment to support economic resilience as Senior Evaluator, funded by BMZ via GIZ. Equatorial … Read more