Abstract booklet - gtö – Society for Tropical Ecology

142 PARALLEL SESSION HALL H III | TROPICAL ECOLOGISTS AT WORK143Session: Tropical ecologists at work: where and how to find a jobThursday, 24 February, 12:45, Hall H IIIConsulting firms - opportunities for working in the field ofdevelopment cooperationWolfgang Scharm 11GOPA Worldwide Consultants, wolfgang.scharm@gopa.deTHURSDAY 12:45 Hall H IIIGOPA Consultants is an independent, private German consulting firm thatfor the most part implements projects in the field of technical and financialassistance. The company provides its services to both bilateral and multilateraldonors/organisations. Work is carried out mainly for the European Commission,Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Kreditanstaltfür Wiederaufbau (KfW), Worldbank and other development banks, theMillennium Challenge Corporation and others. With its group of affiliatedcompanies, GOPA Consultants is one of the strongest European consultingfirms in the field of development cooperation.The technical fields covered include amongst others agriculture and ruraldevelopment, forestry, fisheries, economic development and good governance,information and innovation services, education and employment promotion,and infrastructure development. As other consulting firms in the field ofdevelopment cooperation, GOPA Consultants works with a diversity of staff ofmany different professional backgrounds.A general feature of the staff engaged at head office is that they have both asolid technical and academic background and general skills that enable themto deal with the diversity of tasks at hand, both at headquarters and while onmission abroad. Indeed, work is not only confined to head office, where peopleare either engaged in project acquisition or project backstopping but alsousually includes short-term assignments abroad, for instance to gather factsand information on new projects, carry out backstopping on site or participatein planning and other workshops. For those wanting to involve themselvesprofessionally in development assistance, opportunities to do so not onlyexist within funding organisations and NGOs but also in consulting companiesthat provide services in delivering technical and financial assistance projects.The presentation therefore centres on the role that consulting firms play ininternational cooperation and the chances that present themselves for youngprofessionals.gtöSociety for Tropical Ecology | Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V. Status and future of tropical biodiversity | Frankfurt, 21 - 24 February 2011gtö