Evaluating development
Research and advisory on monitoring and evaluation, planning and implementation of developing-country projects.
In recent years, modern evaluation techniques experienced growing interest within development practice and research. ecol addresses these interests by designing feasible approaches that meet best practice academic standard and expectations of stakeholders. ecol has extensive experience in the development and implementation of evaluations on the ground and in cooperation with practitioners.
ecol is a research consultancy based in Cologne, Germany. Founded in late 2012, ecol is a spin-off company of RWI, one of Germany’s leading economic research institutes committed to evidence-based policy advice. ecol provides public and private clients with research and advisory services on monitoring and evaluation as well as planning and implementation of developing country projects. These services span different fields of competence, with a focus on infrastructure and environment.
The services offered by ecol combine scientific rigor and a solid foundation in quantitative and qualitative analysis with expertise on study implementation tailored to the particular challenges in the field. ecol builds on several years of experience in working with international and partner country organisations in the developing world. Owing to these collaborations, ecol can rely on an increasing network including international agencies and research institutes, experts and local survey firms.
News
Latest news from the ecol team.
Topic areas
What we work on.
Energy
fuels for development
Energy access and reliability in developing countries is the key expertise of ecol. In many of our activities, we seek to address the link of energy to other topics, including climate, job creation, and gender.
Environment
water & forests
Resource conservation and efficient resource management are main aspects that we are concerned with in our work, for example when evaluating water infrastructure.
Climate
mitigation and adaptation
In our work on climate policy and climate-proof interventions, we seek for double dividends in in achieving both mitigation and adaptation results.
Microfinance
overcoming financial constraints
Financial constraints remain a key barrier for people to adopt technologies that help them to maintain and improve their livelihoods. In our work, we look at the role microcredits can play to alleviate that situation.
Meet the team
The people behind ecol.
Maximiliane Sievert
Partner
Maximiliane has been working as an environmental and energy economist since 2008. From April 2009 to March 2010 she worked on market and competition analyses in the waste management sector for an independent consulting firm. Currently, Maximiliane is partner of ecol and researcher at the economic research institute RWI, where she specialized in applied research in the area of energy economics with a focus on the relation between poverty and improved access to energy in developing countries.
She has gathered extensive practical experience in leading impact evaluation studies including the design and implementation of household and enterprise surveys. She has published in refereed journals such as the Journal of Social and Economic Policy, and Journal of Rural and Community Development. She studied economics and Latin American history at the University of Cologne and Santiago de Chile and is currently finalizing a PhD in Economics at Ruhr University Bochum. Maximiliane is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and German.
Jörg Ankel-Peters
Partner
Working for ecol, RWI and as consultant to the World Bank and UNIDO, Jörg is a specialist in access to modern energy in developing countries and the evaluation of development interventions. In this context, Jörg is leading an international consortium that evaluates development activities in the energy sector financed by the Netherlands in three countries.
Furthermore, Jörg designed the methodology of evaluation studies for rural electrification and improved stove dissemination projects in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Indonesia, Rwanda, Mozambique and Senegal. He has published in refereed journals such as The Energy Journal, Journal of Development Studies, Land Economics and World Development. Jörg studied economics in Cologne and Paris and holds a PhD from Ruhr University Bochum. He is fluent in English, French, and German.
Gunther Bensch
Partner
Gunther is co-founder of ecol and research associate at RWI. He is a development economist with broad experience in the energy access space. He is specialised in designing evaluation studies and has led and implemented surveys for energy and climate projects in Indonesia and several countries in East and West Africa.
His research focus lies in the empirical investigation of markets for environmental goods and technologies as well as the socio-economic effects of development measures, such as the improved cookstoves. Related works have been published in refereed journals such as Land Economics, Journal of Development Effectiveness and Energy Policy. Gunther holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Bonn, and a PhD in Economics from the Ruhr University Bochum. Gunther is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and German.
Our Projects
In our projects, we seek to carry scientific rigor and a solid foundation in quantitative and qualitative analysis into the world of development practice, together with a large network among academic institutions and consulting companies in both industrialized and developing countries.
Publications
Our team members regularly publish their academic research related to ecol’s topic areas and beyond.
Get in touch
Working on something we should be part of? Drop us a line: ecol@ecol-cologne.de