Kosovo — establishing Regional Development Agencies
Ministry of Local Government / Ministry of European Integration (2011–2012). 176 working days, €2.95M budget. Team leader.
The problem
An EU-funded programme to establish five Regional Development Agencies was behind schedule and at risk of losing funding. Ministries disagreed on scope; agencies existed on paper without operating capacity.
The approach
Took over as team leader mid-project. Rebased the plan around what the ministries could actually resource, negotiated a revised scope with the EU delegation, and ran a hands-on capability-building programme with 120 officials — governance procedures, financial control, project pipeline management — one agency at a time.
The result
Project rescued and delivered inside the €2.95M envelope. Five agencies operating independently, together managing ~€17M in development aid under EU-compliant governance.
What I learned
When a large public-sector project is failing, the fix is almost never more planning documents. It is renegotiating scope to what the local system can absorb and putting a consultant physically next to the officials doing the work.