Marc Loesewitz

When I joined GIZ - the German International Cooperation Association - I followed on a passion for foreign affairs that has been with me since I first moved to Australia at age 15. As the Deputy Project Director of SecFin Africa (EU Action) I work to strengthen the capacity of Sub-Saharan African countries to combat illicit financial flows (IFF) linked to transnational organised crime, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. A topic I am passionate about, especially since I believe all of our current development challenges: poverty, inequality, climate change, the rise of autocracy - to name a few, are intimately related with illicit financial flows. Each year an estimated 89 billion US-dollars are lost to IFF in African countries, making it the single biggest barrier to domestic resource mobilisation and sustainable development. Together our partners we work on technical solutions to fight IFFs in Africa, from prevention over investigation to asset recovery.

Before I became a Deputy Project Director for an EU Project, I advised the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for 3 years on anti-corruption. I also worked with the German Federal Foreign Office - the Auswärtiges Amt - in Berlin, where I focused on Germany’s strategic priorities of the 2020 EU Council Presidency. Previously I spent a year at the European Commission in the Directorate-General GROW and at CMS EU Law Office, giving legal advice on international trade law to public bodies as well as private companies across all industries - a challenging task full of potential in a time of constant digital transformation.

In 2015 I lived in Paris, where I researched at the OECD headquarters on the growing role of International Organizations in International Regulatory Co-operation (IRC) and wrote an in-depth case study on the OIML as a standard setting body and its contribution to IRC.

While studying law at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), I also worked as a research assistant at the Professorship for Public Law, European Law and Public International Economic Law (Prof. Dr. Tietje).

I'm a fully qualified lawyer to the German Bar and I hold a Master in Business Law and Economic Law (LL.M.oec.) from the MLU. During my studies, I spent a semester in China (Chongqing), one year in France (Paris), where I also gained the Maîtrise en droit in EU law & foreign affaires from l'Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense. Furthermore, I interned at the OIML and the German Consulate General (Barcelona) and worked as a Research Assistant on Public International Law at the Professorship of Christian Tietje (Michigan).

Feel free to be in touch via Twitter at @MarcLoesewitz, where I tweet mainly about politics, foreign policy, law, economy, technical innovation, Germany and the EU.