Louisa Barzen

Fellowship

Mercator Fellowship on International Affairs

Period of the Fellowship

2018

Project title

Between developmental impact and return – How can innovative finance and investments close the finance gap of the SDGs?

Short biography

During her fellowship year, Louisa works on innovative finance and investments in development cooperation and the potential to raise private funds alongside with public funds. She gained professional experience in development finance at the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and an Indian micro-finance NGO. She spent one year in Togo and held positions at the German Bundestag and the research group ‘Global Food’. For her master’s thesis, she conducted research on the impact of certifications on smallholder farmers as an assistant, on success factors of Ugandan micro-enterprises with the GIGA Institute and furthermore worked independently on the savings behavior of Indian slum-dwellers. Louisa studied Economics (BA) and Development Economics (MA) in Göttingen and Pune