With over 30 years of hands-on experience across more than 40 countries and mandates from EU, BMZ, GIZ, KfW, United Nations, and multilateral banks, Karsten Weitzenegger delivers results across the full spectrum of international development consulting:
- Cooperation Policy & Partnerships — Karsten designs and evaluates complex bilateral and multilateral cooperation frameworks, drawing on 20+ years of embedding partnership instruments for GIZ, the European Commission, and UNDP across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
- Impact Evaluation & Evidence — As Lead Evaluator on more than 50 projects, Karsten applies the full range of OECD-DAC criteria and mixed-method approaches to generate actionable evidence for donors including BMZ, EU, Sida, and the Inter-American Development Bank
- Governance & Democracy — From social accountability pilots in Palestine to socio-political consultation programmes in Jordan and North Macedonia, Karsten assesses governance outcomes and advises on democratic institution-building with a proven track record for GIZ and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
- Sustainable Development — Karsten leads evaluations and formulation missions that link SDG frameworks with programming reality, including a comprehensive meta-analysis of 25 SDG-relevant evaluations in Costa Rica for DEval.
- Nature & Climate — From leading the mid-term review of Ecuador’s REDD Early Movers programme worth 41 million EUR to evaluating Green Climate Fund governance for direct access entities, Karsten brings rigorous assessment skills to forest protection, climate resilience, and green transition projects.
- Digital Transition — Karsten has guided digital capacity building since the early 2000s, from eCommerce training for Andean Community governments to developing internet-supported BDS networks in Sri Lanka and digital entrepreneurship programming for GIZ.
- Global Gateway — With deep expertise in EU-Africa, EU-Latin America, and EU-Eastern Neighbourhood cooperation instruments, Karsten evaluates trade association agreements, IPA II programmes, and EDF strategies that directly underpin the investment and partnership logic of the Global Gateway.
- Stabilization & Reconstruction — Karsten has delivered leadership training for civil servants in post-conflict Afghanistan under UNDP, evaluated humanitarian-development linkages in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and assessed conflict-sensitive programming across the MENA region.
- Capacity Development & Facilitation — As a certified trainer and workshop moderator with a university certificate in adult learning, Karsten has designed and delivered hundreds of capacity development interventions for GIZ’s Academy for International Cooperation, national ministries, and regional bodies across five continents.
- Education & Skills — From evaluating TVET impact measurement methodologies for BMZ and the IDB across Latin America to identifying youth skills programmes in Kenya for Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Karsten connects education systems to labour market realities.
- Economic Development & Employment — Karsten has spent over two decades designing, implementing, and evaluating programmes that improve business environments, promote entrepreneurship, and create decent jobs, including private sector projects in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America for the EU and GIZ.
- Trade Integration & Economic Policy — As Senior Strategic Advisor on ECOWAS’s WATIP II programme and Lead Evaluator of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement trade pillar, Karsten translates complex trade policy into measurable development outcomes for regional economic communities and national governments.
- Business & Private Sector — Karsten evaluates and designs public-private partnership programmes, chamber cooperation projects, and SME development strategies across emerging markets, including develoPPP evaluations for GIZ and business environment assessments for EU Delegations from Montenegro to Guatemala.