Sven Hindkjær: Proud of the NIRAS spirit and efficient way of working
Sven Hindkjær at our offices in Copenhagen.
After almost 30 years with NIRAS Development Consulting, our Country Director for Denmark shares why he is dedicated to an organisation that cares about the common good.
As Country Director for NIRAS Development Consulting in Denmark, Sven Hindkjær oversees a staff of around 30 in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Allerød who manage donor-funded projects from organisations like Danida, the EU, the World Bank, and KfW.
"We work in agriculture in Burkina Faso, water in Myanmar, fund management in the Horn of Africa, support to civil society organisations in Tunisia and we also do some special things like send out election observers for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as experts to help create security in Africa and Europe. We are a mix of professions such as geographers, political scientists, anthropologists, agronomists, economists and even engineers, from all around the globe. Many people in NIRAS don’t know that 90% of the development consulting staff are not Danish – we have more than 30 nationalities employed in 27 different locations around the world."
A macro economist by profession, Sven has been with the organisation since 1992 and has worked with agriculture, environment, governance and finance across Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. As a Portuguese speaker, he has helped develop NIRAS’s business in Mozambique for the last 20 years and is Chairman of the Board of NIRAS Mozambique Limitada.
Sven is clear on why he has remained with the organisation so long.
"NIRAS is a unique place because people actually care about the common good – promoting 'working across'. I have worked in other development consulting firms and did not find the same spirit. You can go in the direction you want and people support you. It has to make financial sense obviously – but there is a high degree of freedom. So you can take on the challenges."
Greater efficiency and effectiveness through fund management
In the years Sven has been with the organisation he has seen a big shift towards fund management, of which NIRAS has been at the forefront. "An effective way of financing the SDG agenda, fund management has enabled us to minimise the administrative costs of development aid and get more funds directly to those who need them. We have done this in places like Ghana, Ukraine, Uganda, and Southern Africa for example.
"That we have been able to this and at the same time maintain our integrity – never being corrupt is something of which I am very proud. A beneficiary in Cambodia once said it is harder to get money from NIRAS than water from a stone," Sven recalls with a laugh.
The concrete consequences of greater efficiency in programme delivery has meant more training to increase value creation in production, more clean water to communities, stronger democratic movements and popular participation in decision-making processes, as well as improved productivity and income for farmers.
