Berlin

Alte Turnhalle Berlin, Holteistraße 6-9, 10245 Berlin

CONSULTING IN FUTURE – REMAINS EVERYTHING DIFFERENT?

Berlin, 29.06.22 – Registration @ 16:00hrs CEST / Event @ 17:00hrs CEST

Note: No live streaming, in person event only, video recordings available shortly after event

Innovative policy experts, development practitioners, and activists look to the future of international cooperation: How will development consulting services need to be designed in the future to meet global challenges?

In entertaining formats, our guest will share their insights guided by specific questions: What makes transformation sustainable at for individuals and for societies and how must this understanding translate into our work? How can human-centered design enable innovation for development more effectively? And how can development consulting services help to leverage the critically needed private sector investments at scale to trigger a lasting impact from global action?

1. Welcome and introduction (starting at 17:00)

Ilona Schadl, Managing Director GFA Consulting Group Dr. Kerstin Humberg, Moderator

2. On the cliff? A reflection on international cooperation

Prof. Claudia Warning, Former Director-General at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

3. The devil is in the details! How to enhance the impact of consulting?

  • The power of positivity: hopefulness for agents of change
    Christian Thiele, Expert in Positive Psychology
  • Enabling innovation for development effectively
    Kilian Karg, Design Researcher
  • Mobilizing much-needed private-sector investment at scale
    Jonathan First, Managing Director, GFA Climate & Infrastructure, Cape Town South Africa

4. A reality check from an African perspective

Moderated dialogue with Wanjira Mathai, Managing Director, Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI)

5. Now what? Prospects for the future

Concluding panel with policy makers and development practitioners
Prof. Claudia Warning, Former Director-General at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Christine Heimburger, Director KfW Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
Irina Scheffmann, Director GIZ Liaison Office Berlin 

 6. Get-together (starting at around 18:30hrs)

With finger food and drinks (closing 20:00hrs)

Download Agenda (PDF)

MODERATOR

Dr. Kerstin Humberg

Managing Director, Yunel

Dr. Kerstin Humberg is founder and managing partner of Yunel, a company dedicated to unleashing human potential for positive social change. Since 2015, Yunel has offered customized leadership development programs based on insights from positive psychology and brain research. After training as a journalist, Kerstin studied human geography, political science and psychology in Hamburg and Granada. From 2006 to 2014, she worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. As a Senior Engagement Manager, she developed sustainability solutions and transformation strategies for clients in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. As part of her PhD, she worked with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and companies such as Danone and Veolia to develop social business solutions for rural communities.

SPEAKER

Prof. Dr. Claudia Warning

Prof. Dr. Claudia Warning is Honorary Professor at the University of Applied Science Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. From 2018 to 2022, she has been the Director-General for the Middle East; Asia; Latin America; South-Eastern and Eastern Europe; Civil Society and Churches at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

As member of the Board of the German protestant development agency Bread for the World, she was responsible for its International and Domestic Programmes in more than 90 countries from 2005 to 2018. Professor Warning has vast experience having led about twenty different organisations, voluntary and full-time. She served as the Executive Director of the Protestant Association for Cooperation in Development (EZE) and the Service Overseas (DÜ). She was Director at the Karl Kübel Foundation for Child and Family and chaired the Association of German Development and Humanitarian Aid Non-Governmental Organisations in Germany. She also worked at the German Commission Justitia et Pax, the Federal Ministry of Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development and the German Foundation for International Development (DSE).

Professor Warning studied geography in Bonn, Germany, and in Pune, India. She has published many papers on development issues, including participatory urban development, environmental and resource protection, as well as savings and loans systems.

Christian Thiele

Christian Thiele is a coach, trainer, podcaster and author of three books with a focus on positive psychology in the work context, positive and strength-based leadership. His podcast “Positiv Führen” can be heard on various platforms. He teaches in Germany’s first Master’s program on Positive Psychology at the German University of Sports and Health and is a trainer at the German Society for Positive Psychology. A passionate, but terrible climber, an enthusiastic skier, and father of three children, Christian Thiele lives in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. More information at positiv-fuehren.com

Kilian Karg

Kilian Karg is a strategic designer for sustainable development, and psychologist.
Before starting life-long learning, he studied at HPI D-School and University Innsbruck. By co-founding Protellus, he initiated Germanys first Design Thinking agency that fully focusses on sustainable development, leveraging the power of user centred and agile methodologies. As an external expert, he e.g., engages in projects with GIZ, African Union, and World Bank Group. At B.A.U.M., he is involved in EU R&D projects, focussing on capacity building and stakeholder engagement. As an UNLEASH Ambassador, he is representing an international community of thousands of innovators and facilitators. Also, he contributes and exchanges expertise all along global hackathons, accelerators, and large-scale SDG innovation labs.

Wanjira Mathai

Wanjira Mathai is the Managing Director, Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI). She is the current Chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation and the former Chair of the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in Kenya. Wanjira comes with over 20 years of experience advocating for social and environmental change on both local and international platforms. Over the years, Wanjira has also served important strategic and advocacy roles raising the prominence and visibility of global issues such as climate change, youth leadership, sustainable energy, and landscape restoration, at Women Entrepreneurs in Renewables (wPOWER), the Wangari Maathai Foundation (WMF), and GBM, which is the organization her mother, Wangari Maathai (2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) founded in 1977. Wanjira currently serves on the Board of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and as a Leadership Council member of the Clean Cooking Alliance. In 2018 and 2020 Wanjira was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Women.

Jonathan First

Jonathan First spent 18 years in investment banking in London, Toronto and Johannesburg and 9 years in development finance in Southern Africa after qualifying as a lawyer. Since 2012 Jonathan has focused on climate focused development finance and impact investment in Sub Saharan Africa. Jonathan established GFA C&I in 2018 to provide advisory services to support and fund climate focused infrastructure. At the DBSA, Jonathan developed innovative structured finance solutions and sourced funding for large infrastructure projects in SSA. He led the DBSA’s initiative to create a green bank which culminated in the establishment of the GCF funded Climate Finance Facility in 2018. Jonathan currently serves on 2 committees of South Africa’s first Green Outcomes Fund and on the advisory committee of the Global Climate Innovation Lab. He was also part of the task team that set up the Impact Investment National Advisory Board in South Africa and now a board member.

Irina Scheffmann

Irina Scheffmann is Director of the Unit Commissioning Parties at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. She has been working in the field of international development for 21 years. Before she returned to Germany in November last year, she spent over 14 years in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Philippines) as well as Romania as GIZ Country Director and Head of Programme for sustainable economic development projects. Her passion is change management and connecting the dots via cross-sector approaches. Irina holds a Master of International Economic, Business and Cultural Studies with focus on Southeast Asia.

Dr. Christine Heimburger

Director, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, KfW Development Bank

Christine Heimburger started her career with KfW in 1989 as a project manager at KfW´s regional department Asia, where she was in charge of German Financial Cooperation projects with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In 1998 she was seconded to Jakarta to set-up a local office for KfW. After her return to Frankfurt in 2001 she joined KfW´s export- and project finance business unit, where she was responsible for the origination and structuring of commercial financing transactions in Eastern Europe and Asia. In 2003 she took the lead of the Corporate Affairs and Strategy department in KfW IPEX-Bank. In 2012 she returned to the area of development cooperation and took her position as Director of the East Asia and Pacific Department of KfW Development Bank. Since August 2020 she is the responsible director for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Christine Heimburger graduated in economics and received a doctorate degree from the University of Giessen. Before joining KfW Dr. Heimburger worked at the University of Giessen as a research assistant and as a freelance consultant in development politics.

MUSICAL SETTING

Ethiopian Soul & Jazz

The word Gungun in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, means artfully braided hair. The idea of Gungun is to create a new artful form of music by combining their different musical and cultural backgrounds. The singer Feven Yoseph grew up in Dessie, one of the largest Ethiopian cities on the northeastern edge of the Abyssinian highlands. In Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, she studied at the Mekane Jesus School of Jazz music, where she soon also became Ethiopia’s first vocal coach, establishing a vocal class. With their songs, Gungun tear down universally prevailing barriers between different cultures and build bridges between worlds that so often exist separately: They connect spiritual and secular music, combining Ethiopian styles with jazz, reggae, soul and RnB, telling musical stories on openness, spirituality and progress.

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