KUENSTLING, Marie

Senior consultant & Trainer with more than 20 years of extensive experience in consultancy and implementation of international cooperation projects with focus on rural and economic development, sustainable and climate change adapted agriculture, value chain development, and ATVET.

Marie Künstling holds an MBA in Agricultural Management and an MA in linguistics, education and pedagogy (Russian and German languages and literature). Before starting her carrier as a freelance consultant and trainer, Marie was Managing Director and headed the Department International Consulting at IAK Agrar Consulting, Germany. She worked also for the seed production company KWS SAAT AG, Germany, and as a Project Manager and Project Director at all stages of the project cycle. With TÜV Nord Bulgaria she implemented Quality Management Systems according to ISO 9001:2000. Her working experience gave her a comprehensive understanding of all technical and financial aspects of project planning, implementation, controlling, monitoring, and evaluation.

Marie Künstling’s interdisciplinary expertise is very broad and covers the areas:

  • Sustainable agriculture (seed production, milk, meat, fruit and potato production, animal breeding, animal welfare, food security, organic farming)
  • Climate change mitigation and adaptation
  • Value chain management (ValueLinks), Nutrition sensitive value chains
  • Agricultural policy
  • Agricultural cooperatives and associations
  • Establishment of Agricultural advisory services (public and private providers)
  • Private Business Development
  • Feasibility Studies for integrated farms with primary production and agricultural training centres
  • Education/Training and Capacity building
  • Gender and Women Empowerment
  • Project Management (PCM, GPM, Capacity WORKS)
  • Team leadership
  • Quality and Knowledge Management Systems
  • Project evaluation.

In value chain development, Marie Künstling specializes on providing consulting, evaluation and training to value chain projects (milk, meat, fruit, vegetables, potato). Her recent experience was a Rapid Impact Assessment of the COVID 19 pandemic on the value chains in the GIZ Green Innovation Centres in Mozambique (baobab, pigeon pea) and Zambia (milk, legumes and groundnuts) as well as practical experience in the sweet cherry and apple value chains.

Marie has worked on behalf of various donors, incl. GIZ, EU, and German and national ministries. Besides her experience in training conception, didactics and teaching materials, including target-oriented application of various media tools, she has been trained in PCM, GPM and Capacity WORKS.

Regional Experience: Marie’s regional experience covers Angola, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Mongolia, Mozambique, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Zambia,Zimbabwe.

Languages: Written and oral proficiency in English, Russian, Portuguese, German, Bulgarian, intermediate knowledge in Spanish and basic knowledge in Armenian and Mandarin (HSK II).

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