Policy Advice & Organizational development

In policy and strategy development
ECO Consult operates on different levels:

On the national level we support reform processes for modernization of public administration, for the development of sector legislations and for integration of locally piloted experiences into sector reforms. Thus, in P.R. China e.g., ECO supported forest legislation reforms through analysis and provision of comparative examples, and in Togo, ECO advised the Ministry of Finance in establishing the national Support Fund for Local Authorities (FACT).

On the international level, ECO supports Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) by (i) educating diverse audiences about MEA and their development, (ii) advising on their application from our partner countries’ national level downwards, and (iii) facilitating their integration into enabling policy, legal-regulatory and institutional framework conditions.

ECO also provides various analytical services on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development’s policy in the forest sector (such as strategic concept papers for forest-related activities or contributions to federal policies such as enquête commission statements).

ECO also assists German DC agencies in their strategic development (e.g. policy papers on secondary forests, nature conservation, wood energy, gender).

Organizational development constitutes an integral part of any sustainable development process, where the strengthening of human capacities, of institutional structures and of societal cooperation structures go hand in hand. ECO Consult has built up profound knowledge and experience in advising organizations for better management structures (finances, human resources, administration, decision making processes, etc.) - at macro (Ministries and other national public authorities), meso (regional and local authorities, larger organisations) and micro level (smaller associations and cooperatives at local level). ECOs support ranges from a learning by doing approach, over specific lessons learnt support, to team development processes and one-to-one support for specialists and executive staff.

ECO has been co-operator to the pilot phase of "Capacity Works", the now well-established management model of GIZ's. With a previous background in each single tool applied by the model, ECO is now also capable to plan and work along the comprehensive strategic approach.