The Executive Committee (ExCo) functions as the board of the DCED, providing oversight of the thematic groups, as well as support and guidance to the DCED Secretariat in the implementation of the DCED’s work programme. The ExCo typically meets once a quarter and takes all decisions that are not reserved to the Annual Meeting. The Co-Chairs in particular provide strategic and policy overview for the DCED. The three members and two co-chairs are elected for two-year terms; elections are held once a year at the DCED Annual Meeting.
Current ExCo members
Merten Sievers, Co-Chair
Merten Sievers is the Value Chain Development and Entrepreneurship Coordinator in ILO’s Enterprise Department. In this position, he is responsible for the ILO’s global technical cooperation programme on Value Chain and Market Systems Development. He also manages ILO’s portfolio on entrepreneurship training, on women’s entrepreneurship development and an expanding portfolio of refugee livelihood interventions.
His team and related ILO field offices backstop technical cooperation activities in 70 countries. Merten is the author and co-author of several publications on strategies to enhance competitiveness and job creation in specific sectors and value chains, using a market systems development approach. He holds a degree in Economic Geography (Hamburg and Madrid), and a Diploma in Development Management (Berlin).
Elisabet Montgomery, Co-Chair
Elisabet Montgomery is the Senior Policy Specialist for Employment at Sida, based in Stockholm. Elisabet joined Sida in 2013, where her focus has been on Employment promotion and Market Development. In particular, Elisabet has led on the institutionalisation of the Market Systems Development approach within Sida.
Elisabet has worked on Economic Development and Employment in Sweden and abroad for the past 20 years, including 15 years in development cooperation for Sida, the ILO and the private sector. Her areas of work included enterprise development, business environment reform, job creation, local economic development, social entrepreneurship, market systems development, gender and human rights. Elisabet has worked in Africa and Asia and has been based in Sri Lanka and Rwanda. She holds a Master’s degrees in business studies and political science from the University of Stockholm.
Pascal Fabing
Pascal Fabing is an Expert – Private Sector and Innovation, at LuxDev, Luxembourg’s bilateral development cooperation agency. In his role, Pascal has developed the agency’s approach and instruments to partner with businesses and academia for development impact. Market systems development and locally-led innovations are his focus areas.
Karin Wedig
Karin Wedig is the Head of Programme Sustainable Economic and Financial Systems at GIZ, which advises the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
From 2018 to 2023, Karin was the Africa chief economist at GIZ’s Africa Department and prior to that, she held an Assistant Professorship of International Political Economy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado. Karin holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. She has done research on African export agriculture, esp. in the coffee and aquaculture markets, and on effects of FDI on labor markets and inequality. Karin has served as an advisor for different international organizations, including UNESCO, the Agence Française de Développement, and the ILO.
Meaghan McGrath
Meaghan McGrath has assumed her role as IFC’s Global Head of the Partnerships and Fundraising team effective April 15th, 2024. For the past five years Meaghan has been Global Head and Manager, Syndications, leading a team of 30 colleagues based in DC, Singapore, London, and Nairobi. For the majority of 2022 she was Acting Director for Mobilization and Syndications and in FY23 her team exceeded their stretch targets for mobilization bringing in nearly $9 billion in mobilized investments. Prior to the Treasury VPU, she was Chief Counsel Mobilization in the Legal VPU and in private practice before joining IFC. Meaghan graduated from Columbia College with Honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At Georgetown Law School, she graduated with Honors. She has lived in India, Guatemala, and DC, and enjoys travel, dogs, the beach and her four children.
ExCo Minutes
DCED Members can view the ExCo Minutes on demand; please contact the Secretariat.