Alison joined INTRAC as a principal consultant in February 2013. For over 20 years she worked with international and local NGOs and civil society organisations, based in east, west and southern Africa (Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Malawi) as well as south-east Asia (Cambodia and Laos). She has worked for Concern Worldwide, Save the Children, CARE, and the Feinstein International Center (Ethiopia), and with numerous other organisations as a consultant. She has a Bachelor of Land Economy from Aberdeen University and a Master’s degree in Rural Resources Management (Arid Zone Studies) from the University of Bangor, North Wales.
With INTRAC, Alison specialises in consultancy and training related to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). She co-delivers our online Advanced Monitoring and Evaluation Systems course, as well as designing and delivering a range of M&E related in-house trainings, both online and face-to-face, including in Theory of Change, Data collection and Analysis, Evaluation and Impact Assessment, Outcome Harvesting, Participatory M&E, Human-Rights based approaches to M&E etc. Her recent and ongoing consultancies include:
- Team lead for the baseline and then mid-term review of a multi-country civil society programme focussed on human rights, conflict transformation and peacebuilding;
- MEL lead for a consortia programme working with independent media outlets and journalists across the Western Balkans;
- MEL support including training, accompaniment and mentoring to CSOs involved in a civil society innovation programme in Ethiopia, led by an Ethiopian consultancy organisation;
- MEL systems strengthening and accompaniment for two international organisations seeking to strengthen how they demonstrate and communicate their impact;
- and design and delivery of an online training of trainers course in programme design for over 150 staff of a global international organisation.
Along with other colleagues, Alison has contributed to several papers in INTRAC’s free online resource, the M&E Universe.
Alison led on developing INTRAC’s M&E ‘Manifesto’ a few years back, which sets out some key principles that guide INTRAC’s approach to MEL, including: a focus on demystifying M&E, ensuring that it produces practical, visible benefits for people in understanding the progress and impact of their work; building people’s own skills and confidence to design and implement MEL that is appropriate to their contexts, meets their own needs, and helps them learn, adapt and improve what they do; promoting participatory approaches and encouraging debate and challenging thinking around ‘top down’ and ‘donor driven’ MEL. Together with other staff and colleagues in our network, Alison is interested in how INTRAC can continue to support the decolonisation of consultancy work and play a lead role in shifting the power and our practice towards more diverse, locally-rooted, participatory and learning-oriented MEL.
Related Projects
Creating a Partner Development Programme for Book Aid International
Reviewing the Strengthening Civil Courage programme
Supporting civil society in Ethiopia through CSIF
Consultants for Change (C4C) – investing in local consultancy
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