Consultant - PWB Consult

2018- Independent Development Consult (Own Company)
2013-2017 World Bank - Senior Urban and Social Development Specialist, MENA Region
2002-2013 Local Government Denmark (KL) - Senior Adviser and International Consultant
1998-2001 DANIDA Adviser, specialist in municipal finance, planning and financial planning in Nicaragua
1993-1997 BUPL (Danish Federation of Early Childhood and Youth Education) - Finance and Policy Adviser
1990-1993 The Association of Danish County Councils - Specialist in local government financing and budgeting
1991 Copenhagen Business School - Lecturer in micro and macroeconomics
1986-1989 University of Copenhagen - Teacher in economics and philosophy of science.

Since 2018 PWB Consult has provided advice and consultancies in an inclusive approach with climate change adoption, gender equality, youth and human right principles incorporated in any operation. Overall focus is decentralisation, local governance, institutional building, and intergovernmental finance.
Several assignments have been implemented globally such as an evaluation of the Danish Strategic Sector Cooperation with field visits to Brazil, Kenya and Indonesia, and conduction of a multi country PFM evaluation for the Swiss Government with virtual meetings in the Swiss Federation, Ghana, Kenya, Peru and Albania during the COVID-19 lock-down. PWB Consult has worked for the Danish Government, the EU, UNCDF, UNDP, NIRAS (Sweden), AFD (France), SECO (Swiss Federation) and cooperates with several other international companies.

From September 2013 to September 2017, Mr. Bottern worked in the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa Region as Sr. Urban Development Specialist. He led or co-led WB operations in Palestine, Tunisia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Libya. He provided guidance in many WB operations worldwide as specialist in local government systems. He became fully operational within the WB management and QA system and familiar with all WB procedures. He was involved in preparation of projects with all aspect of social and urban development, human right issues, inclusion of refugees, climate change, environmental and social risks, youth inclusion and gender mainstreaming. He also worked with preparing Jordan municipalities for the inflow of refugees from Syria. After 2017 he has worked with the WB in such countries as Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands and Ethiopia.

He was an international consultant for 12 years in the Danish Association of Municipalities (KL). He worked worldwide with building up local government systems including support to key ministries, finance commissions and local government associations. Increasingly he led or participated in large evaluations of programmes finance by international organisations and in large EU twinning projects. In KL he worked for several international development agencies (Danida, EU, UNCDF, UNDP, the World Bank, Sida, DFID, NORAD and became familiar with their procedures and politics. Projects in: Albania, Bhutan, Bolivia, Ghana, Honduras, Guatemala, India, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam and Yemen.

Mr Bottern started his international work in 1998, when he was contracted as an adviser for the Danish Government stationed in north Nicaragua from 1998 to 2001. In Nicaragua he worked in particular with municipal planning and finance, public participation, social accountability and gender equality. He also coordinated with other programmes and government institutions. He led project activities with a large team consisting of local experts and staff and spearheaded new ideas for local revenue collection and municipal planning.