Dirk Van Esbroeck (°1953) is a socio-economist and has more than 25 years' experience in development co-operation. After completing his studies he worked for six years in Indonesia in an integrated rural development project. During that period he also represented the Belgian NGO Coopibo. Upon his return in 1983 he worked as a freelance consultant. In 1984 he was one of the founding members of South Research. Since then he has carried out a wide range of work for development organisations in some thirty countries - in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe - as well as continuing to play an important role in the development of South Research. He speaks fluent Dutch, English, French and Indonesian.

Key areas of specialisation

• setting up, implementing and managing complex evaluation exercises (for example programme or theme evaluations), paying special attention to the methodological approach and the interaction between the players involved in the evaluation
• application of participatory project and programme management methods and providing training in these methodologies
• guiding change processes in 'social profit' organisations via a participatory process approach
• setting up, extending, analysing and evaluating micro-credit organisations.

Personal characteristics

• Dirk considers it very important to analyse the starting situation before making any decisions about the progress of the mission.
• He has a critical attitude and is honest and objective. He has a lot of respect for the people with whom he works.
• Dirk likes to work in teams of experts. In this context he demands a lot, both of himself and from those around him.
• He has an eye for other people's concerns. Personal contact and warmth are top priorities for him when engaged in a mission.
• Dirk looks for and strives to deliver authenticity through a holistic approach.

Selected work experience

• Team leader of a small team of experts responsible for developing tools to carry out complex sectoral and thematic evaluations for the European Commission.
• overall support and backstopping for the ‘Children and Youth at Risk on the Street’ programme in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia: training in project cycle management (PCM), guidance with planning, monitoring and evaluation. Client: King Baudouin Foundation.
• co-ordination of the programme evaluation (in 11 countries) for the programme run by the WAAW consortium and financed by DGCD working out evaluation methods, briefing local evaluators, quality control of partial evaluations and drafting the final report, for the WAAW consortium.
• co-ordination of the evaluation of co-financing by the European Commission via budget line B7-6000. Dirk was the team leader of the evaluation team (20 people), responsible for working out evaluation methods, overall co-ordination and writing the intermediate and final reports. Client: European Commission.
• designed an integrated project management system adapted for university development co-operation (in a team with other experts). Client: Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR, Flemish Inter-University Council).

Contact Details
South Research vzw, Leuvensestraat 5/2, 3010 Kessel-Lo, België
Tel.: +32 16 49 83 11
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