Good intentions don’t implement themselves.

I design the governance, institutional architecture and policy that turn commitments, partnerships and market interest into delivery, for governments, multilateral institutions and organisations across Africa and the EMEA and MENA region.

Doris Wörfel Institutional Governance & Policy Architect, Pretoria

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What I do

I design the governance, institutional and policy foundations that economic and development goals depend on.

Governance strategy

Governance structures, decision rights and accountability for institutions, programmes and reform coalitions where public, private, development and community actors have to work together.

Strategic and institutional architecture

How institutions, partners and communities connect, who carries which responsibility, and how value and delivery are organised. This includes market-entry pathways for organisations entering African markets.

Policy development and writing

Policy frameworks, white papers, position papers and briefs that are grounded in institutional reality and written to be adopted.

Responsible AI governance

How organisations adopt AI without losing accountability or authorship: governance rules, workflows and training, based on The AI Thinking Method.

Fields of work: tourism and heritage, health infrastructure, international development and partnerships, investment readiness and market entry.

How I work

Every mandate moves through the same three stages.

  1. Diagnostic

    A fixed-scope assessment of the institutional landscape, stakeholders, constraints and options, ending in a decision brief.

  2. Design

    Governance structures, policy frameworks and operating models, written so they can be adopted.

  3. Implementation

    Support for adoption, pilots and reform programmes.

Each stage is scoped and agreed on its own, so every next step rests on evidence rather than momentum.

Portrait of Doris Wörfel

Doris Wörfel

Institutional Governance & Policy Architect

I work at the intersection of institutional governance, sustainable development, tourism policy and AI-enabled professional practice.

My professional career began in the German civil service in 1981. For more than two decades I have worked with governments, multilateral institutions and reform coalitions across Africa and the EMEA and MENA region, designing governance structures, policy frameworks and institutional approaches that support sustainable development, investment readiness and long-term system resilience.

I am also the author and method architect of The AI Thinking Method, a professional handbook on how professionals retain authorship of work produced with AI.

My work is grounded in accountability, institutional capacity and community agency.

Experience

Selected roles, programmes and recognition.

Co-Facilitator
C20 South Africa Tourism Working Group, 2025 G20 Presidency
Governance architectures
For institutional and heritage initiatives, including the SICHT framework (Sustainable Inclusive Community-Based Heritage Tourism)
Programme portfolio management
ILO SCORE programme
Senior Strategic Advisor
Hamdan & Partner MENA Rebuild, HealMENA Libya health infrastructure initiative
Co-Founder and Chairperson
African Sustainable Tourism Organization (ASTO)
Co-patent holder
AU-NEPAD / AUDA
Education
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; First and Second State Examinations for the teaching profession, Germany

Speaking and recognition

Speaker at the UNWTO General Assembly, UN and AU conferences and UK Trade & Investment platforms. Selected among UNESCO’s “50 Minds for the Next 50”.