Our mission is to foster peace through facilitation and finance.

We interpret policy goals and advise on solutions that combine facilitation with financial expertise.

We devise strategies and programmes for stabilisation, recovery, reconstruction, and sustainable development. We offer guidance on peace-positive finance while facilitating collaboration among diverse stakeholders to benefit communities through stability, opportunities, social well-being, and reconciliation.

We assist your organisation in defining its role in fragile and conflict-affected environments.

Gunnar Wälzholz, Founder and Director

Facing Fragility

For an organisation to accomplish its goals in a fragile environment, understanding the complexity and adaptability of the context is imperative. When investing, hiring, or distributing resources locally, you become part of the ecosystem in which you operate.

Facing fragility means understanding this context. Making sense of the reality of your organisation’s partners, beneficieries and other stakeholders is essential for better comprehending the impact of your actions, and how they may be perceived.

Northwest Syria, 2008

Financing in Fragility

Finance can support a transition to a more stable, inclusive, just, and prosperous order. To succeed, the programmatic focus, choice of financing instruments, partner selection and empowerment, and risk mitigation will need to be based on sound contextual analysis and stakeholder engagement.

This applies to the strengthening of public services and the rebuilding of infrastructure through loans, grants and advisory services, and also to financial inclusion and private sector development. The pooling of funds can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of aid. Blended finance, where scarce public funds are employed to mobilize private funding, can also support reconstruction and resilience in fragile environments. Private wealth is another, largely untapped, resource for reconstruction and peacebuilding.

Construction worker in Gaza, 2018

Services

Reconstruct for Peace helps your organisation understand and enhance its role in fragile and conflict-affected settings. We develop conflict sensitive and inclusive solutions for humanitarian assistance, stabilisation, early recovery, reconstruction, and sustainable development. Our solutions are based on an in-depth understanding of development finance for the provision of economic and social services, and community-driven processes. We deliver impactful solutions to complex challenges with sensitivity and creativity.

Euromaidan, Kyiv, 2013

Analysis

  • Macroeconomic analysis
  • Peace and conflict analysis
  • Needs assessments
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Institutional partner analysis
  • Corruption analysis
  • Impact monitoring and evaluation

Advice

  • Moderation in international and multicultural settings; process facilitation
  • Strategy and programme development
  • Development finance solutions, pooled funds, blended finance, microfinance
  • Stakeholder engagement; community-led programming
  • ESG standards and management
  • Resource mobilisation

Recent assignments

  • Repositioned KfW’s municipal housing finance portfolio in Ukraine from project finance to transformational impact.
  • Developed the governance and contractual framework of a pooled fund addressing transboundary relief and recovery needs.
  • Advisory services on blended finance instruments for the reconstruction of Ukraine (for the German Government through GIZ).
  • Recommendations to the German Government on private sector mobilization for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
  • Appraisal of an early recovery programme for Gaza in support of transitional community neighbourhoods for internally displaced people (UNDP, for KfW).
  • Facilitation of a strategy process for a foundation focussing on regional integration and cross-border cooperation in fragile border areas.
  • Development of a resource mobilisation strategy for the Syria Recovery Trust Fund; supporting the SRTF as Resource Mobilisation Coordinator, successfully increasing the Fund’s income stream.
  • Facilitation of a strategic review to enhance a multi-country programme on community-driven refugee camp improvements in the Middle East (UNRWA).
  • Macroeconomic analysis, e.g. on public debt management and on international financial assistance in support of Ukraine.
  • Advice on the design of development finance programmes in fragile environments, e.g. on conflict prevention capabilities (Sahel) and institutional partner identification (Sudan).
  • Moderation of international plenary and panel discussions.

About me

I am a development finance expert with over 20 years of experience in politically highly complex settings, including the Middle East, Ukraine, West Africa, and Afghanistan. With a proven track record of building and leading successful international teams, I have overseen the operations of a multi-donor trust fund, designed multi-sectoral programmes in fragile and conflict-affected settings, and strengthened environmental, social and governance safeguards in institutions and programmes. I successfully facilitate complex processes in international and multicultural settings. I achieve results thanks to excellent communication, moderation, and facilitation skills, and by combining strategic vision with analytical astuteness and hands-on practical experience. I tackle intricate and deep-rooted challenges with sensitivity, creativity, and perseverance to deliver impactful solutions. Based on a client’s specific needs, I also propose collaborative solutions with experts in fields that are complementary to mine.

Professional experience

My advisory services build on 25 years of experience in development finance (KfW), ESG consulting (KPMG) and human rights promotion (ILO), at both expert and executive levels, as well as on academic research on drivers and dynamics of conflict.

  • In December 2025, I was appointed to the Evaluation Panel of the German Federal Foreign Office. The independent Panel advises the German Federal Foreign Office on strategic evaluation projects and supports the further development of its evaluation framework. The Panel’s five members represent diverse backgrounds, including the German Bundestag, policy analysis, evaluation methodology, international diplomacy, and economics.
  • In February 2025, I was appointed by the European Commission to the three-member Audit Board of the Ukraine Facility, the EU’s flagship programme supporting Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction, and modernisation.
  • As Head of Division on Crisis Prevention and Response at KfW’s Middle East Department from 2016 until 2022, I oversaw the structuring and risk-adequate management of multi-sectoral investment projects. Among others, I was responsible for the successful conclusion of a EUR 500 million loan to Iraq for the stabilisation of formerly ISIS-controlled areas.
  • As Chairman of the Management Committee of the Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF), I ensured the strategic and operational oversight of the only multi-donor trust fund operating in the politically highly sensitive context of Syria.
  • When serving as Director of the KfW office in Ukraine (2012-2015), I negotiated with the Ukrainian government the significant expansion of financial cooperation following the Maidan revolution. In addition, I exercised KfW’s supervisory board mandate for the German-Ukrainian Fund (now Business Development Fund, BDF) for the promotion of the Ukrainian financial sector. I also set up KfW’s office in Moldova.
  • In 2012, I set up the Secretariat of the Working Group on Reconstruction of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People. In this function, I successfully garnered donor support for the establishment of a multi-donor trust fund that led to the creation of the SRTF.
  • In my role as KfW office Director in Afghanistan (2010-2012), I oversaw the financial cooperation activities in the largest grant receiving country of German development cooperation.
  • From 2005-2009, I served as Associate Director at KPMG Global Sustainability Services, advising multinational enterprises, financial institutions, and foundations on their environmental, social and governance related risks and opportunities.
  • During my time with the International Labour Organisation, from 2005-2009, I successfully mobilized donor funding for the ILO programme with the largest increase in funding in the Asia-Pacific region, and successfully promoted the inclusion of human rights standards, related to confidentiality and non-discrimination rights at the workplace, in national policies in South East Asia.
  • I hold Master of Science degrees in Political Science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and of Free University of Berlin (graduated with distinction).
  • I completed postgraduate training in international development at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
  • I am a Certified Expert in Microfinance (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management).

Contact

Gunnar Wälzholz

Reconstruct for Peace

Dutch Trade Register No.: 89014472

The Hague
The Netherlands

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