Personal profile

Prof Helmut Asche is an economist and sociologist. He holds a doctoral degree from the Free University of Berlin where he worked as an assistant from 1978-1984 and did field research mainly in East Asia. On behalf of GTZ, the German agency for technical cooperation, he was from 1985 to 1998 economic advisor to the governments of Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Kenya, and later on Africa lead economist at GTZ headquarters. In 2005/2006 he was research fellow at the German Development Institute (GDI), Bonn. Dr Asche holds a professorial title since he was, from 2006 to 2011, professor for economics, politics and societies of Africa at the Institute of African Studies, University of Leipzig. From February 2007 to July 2011, he was the managing director of the institute. Since May 2011 he also is honorary professor at the Department of Anthropology and African studies, University of Mainz. After a brief return to what is now GIZ, Helmut Asche worked from March 2012 to July 2014 as the founding director of the German institute for development evaluation (DEval), in Bonn.
Prof Asche is member of the advisory board of the Poverty Reduction Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet), managed by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Furthermore, he sits on the scientific advisory board of the German – African Business Association.
In April 2018 Prof. Asche became a member of the scientific advisory board of the newly established Schumpeter Center for Research on Socio-Economic Change (JSEC) at the University Jena.