Advisory Services for International Cooperation

We are a network of dynamic development experts with the passion to shape a sustainable and collaborative future for international cooperation.

Our experience is rooted in decades of working as advisers and managers for consulting companies, non-profit organizations and public sector entities. We have repeatedly tackled challenges, achieved successes and learned from mistakes of the global development sector in Africa, Europe, Latin and North America, and South Asia. Now, we apply this drive for action for our clients, benefiting from our proximity to some of the players in global innovation ecosystems as well as the scientific community.

Management Team.

Tobias Straube

Man. Partner (Co-founder) | Chief Innovation Officer

Lead on Entrepreneurship & Innovation Ecosystems

Lead on Higher Education Management

Tobias brings 10+ years of experience in digitalisation, governance, higher education and entrepreneurship projects across Africa, Europe, North America, East Asia, and Latin America. He is Principal at the San Francisco-based consulting think-tank Cambrian Group, advising companies and public institutions becoming Artificial Intelligence (AI)-savvy. As a former adviser to the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Tobias co-designed and co-led projects with combined budgets of $60 million. Those efforts included key finance, advisory and leadership roles in the creation of the African Governance Architecture for the African Union, the establishment of the Pan African University, the global AI for All Lab and tech entrepreneurship initiatives.

Partner (Co-founder) | Chief Operating Officer

Lead on Agricultural Development

Filippo Brasesco

Filippo brings his 10+ years of experience with Inter-governmental Organizations and with the United Nations system in the fields of Agribusiness and Value Chains Development. He is an Agricultural Economist specialised in Agricultural Development, Tropical Agrarian Systems and Development Management. An innovative and open-minded person, with a clear point of view and the passion to advance it. Filippo's work experience in over 15 countries includes technical backstopping and management of multi-million projects with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as well as research and technical publications with FAO and with the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and grassroot work with Non-Governmental Organizations for Development Cooperation.

Partner (Co-founder) | Chief Sales Officer

Director Shareholder at Scio Kenya office

Lead on Organisational Development

Parag Kamble

Parag brings 12+ years of experience in Public Sector Advisory, Governance and Transformation. Operationalising a vision by breaking it down to the minutest of details and seeing this vision taking shape and delivering impact is his idea of professional satisfaction. His past experience includes working with Ministry of IT in Ethiopia for National e-Governance Strategy and developing Unified Billing Systems project, Ministry of Finance in Ethiopia and Kenya for Public Finance Management reforms and Change Management. As an Associate Director at PWC, Parag led Digital Payment Transformation initiatives for Smart Cities and Metro Projects in India. His experience spans across South Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East.

Manuela Kristin Günther 

Associate Partner | Chief Analytics Officer

Lead on Monitoring & Impact Evaluation

Manuela brings 7+ years of experience as Development Economist on Impact Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis, Applied Micro-econometrics and Economic Policy Analysis to inform evidence-based policies especially in the field of financial inclusion and agriculture development. Her international work experience spans across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific. As a former ODI Fellow, she has been seconded to work with Central Banks and Governments in India, South Africa and Fiji as part of development project with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), where she combined research with applied policy work to drive evidence-based policy making. 

Katja Klafsky

Associate Partner | Chief Financial Officer

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Katja brings 12+ years of professional experience in medium-sized tax firms and advises primarily in the areas of tax compliance and digitalisation. She focuses on future-oriented business management advice and always provides up-to-date business management evaluations with meaningful figures as a reliable basis for decision-making.

Nora Jana Fedisch

Senior Associate | Business Operations

Lead on Gender Equality

Nora brings 5+ years of experience in developing sustainable value chains across Sub-Saharan Africa. She has extensive experience in fostering gender inclusivity in agricultural value chains and supporting startups and young entrepreneurs in rural areas. Her know-how ranges from gender and youth inclusive development approaches, to developing innovative training methods, designing and implementing projects to cooperating with public and private stakeholders.

Affiliate | Marketing and Communication

Jolien Demeyer

Jolien has 10+ years of experience in sales, marketing, and strategy development. She has relentless hunger to grow, learn, and achieve. She holds master degrees in economics and management from global business schools like Vlerick, Hult, MIT, and Stellenbosch University. By combining the inputs coming from the experts in their field and then applying it in business society, she understands how connect the dots and make theory a reality.

Dr. Keni Kariuki

Director at Scio Kenya office

Keni brings 8+ years of experience as a legal expert and political economist. He leverages his background in policy research and passion in agricultural policy to advance the work being done in the African regulatory space. He has a PhD in agricultural political economy, which interrogated the institutional frameworks, rents, rent-seeking and power dynamics that affect service delivery. He continues to conduct research, tutoring, mentoring and to pursue a clearer understanding of the dynamics that influence market outcomes.

Emmanuel Nomafo

Senior Expert

Lead on Financial Management & Procurement

Emmanuel has 10+ years of experience in international development cooperation, with expertise on employment promotion, green TVET, grant management as well as entrepreneurship and SME development and youth policy and empowerment. He is a coach and trainer on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and soft skills, and has been providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs and organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany.

Network Members.

Click on the photo to visit their LinkedIn profile.