Development Initiatives

Chris Childs

Non-Executive Director

In early 2009, we appointed 2 Non-Executive Directors, Chris Childs and Kate Sayer to join the management team of Development Initiatives Poverty Research Ltd. Both Kate and Chris challenge the team and provide fresh and unbiased guidance on business issues.

After completing his law degree in 1977, Chris was admitted as a solicitor in 1980, became a partner in Cartwright Black in 1991 and is currently a part time consultant in the merged firm of MLM Cartwright.

Chris has over 25 years’ experience of dealing with a wide range of employment matters, both contentious and non-contentious, appearing extensively as an advocate before Employment Tribunals, acting for employers and employees, dealing with claims of unfair dismissal, sex and disability discrimination and equal pay – he has also appeared before the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Chris has also acted as legal advisor to the local General Commissioners of Income Tax until the re-organisation of the tax appeal system on 1 April 2009 and in addition has acted as Company Secretary and sat on the Board of Management of the charity ‘Lightship 2000’ for over 20 years.

Kate Sayer

Non-Executive Director

Kate is our second non-executive director and also a partner at Sayer Vincent, a consulting and auditing firm that specialises in charities and not-for-profit organisations. Kate is particularly interested in finding ways of making charities and INGOs more effective at what they do and she runs two groups which research and promote best practice in these areas: one for INGOs and another looking at better ways of planning and managing resources.

As well as leading assignments for individual organisations, Kate participates in consultations and working parties on issues affecting the sector and is actively involved in the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and the Charity Tax Group. She is a visiting lecturer on charity accounting at Cass Business School.

Kate is the author of a number of books including five books on tax and financial management in the Practical Guide series.

Judith Randel

Director

Tony German and Judith Randel are the co-founders and directors of Development Initiatives. They act as principal consultants on all our programmes of work as well as providing the strategic direction for Development Initiatives.

Prior to establishing Development Initiatives in 1992, Judith and Tony job-shared as director of public affairs at ActionAid. They have produced a wealth of publications and papers, notably as founding editors and advisors on Reality of Aid, 1991–2004.

Judith is well known in the NGO and donor communities for her work on aid statistics, financing instruments and humanitarian aid trends and is a sought-after speaker on the issue. Judith notably directs the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme and our work with ONE/DATA.

Tony German

Director

Tony's analysis, research and communication work in the development and aid arena has prompted high-level policy debate and action on critical issues such as the role of public engagement in poverty reduction, the importance of social investment and social security beyond national borders and attention to rights that underline the potential for eradicating poverty by 2025.

Having played an instrumental role in highlighting the concept, symptoms and effects of chronic poverty, Tony is now working to build consensus on the need for an MDG+ strategy to be put in place by 2010 and to agree the affordability and achiehvability of absolute poverty elimination by a specified date.

Tony and Judith are based in Somerset.

Owen Barder

Director, aidinfo

Owen is the director of the aidinfo programme.

Owen joined Development Initiatives in 2008 from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), where he worked as the Director of International Finance and Development Effectiveness, leading the teams responsible for international financial institutions and global funds, improving aid effectiveness; innovative financing; improving financial accountability; fighting corruption; and measuring results. His previous posts at DFID include: Director of Information, Communications, and Knowledge; and Head of Africa Policy.

Between 2004 and 2006, Owen worked with the Center for Global Development, a non-profit policy institute whose mission is to make globalisation work for the poor.

Before working on international development, Owen was the UK Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Private Secretary. He was seconded to the South African Treasury from 1997 to 1999, working on budget reform and intergovernmental fiscal relations.

Between 2000 and 2004, Owen was a non-executive director of OneWorld, a not-for-profit whose mission is to promote the use of the Internet and media for the benefit of the world's poor.

Owen is currently based in Addis Ababa.

Daniel Coppard

Senior Policy Advisor

As a Senior Policy Advisor, Daniel Coppard works across several projects and programmes. He leads DI’s analytical work on development assistance, and engages on cross-cutting issues of poverty and vulnerability.

Prior to joining Development Initiatives, Dan was a co-author of UNDP’s 2006 and 2007/8 Human Development Reports. He led analysis on a range of development policy issues including climate change adaptation, vulnerability and risk reduction for the 2007/8 Report on Climate Change, and agriculture, water resource management and poverty for the 2006 Report on Water.

Dan is a political economist with a background in rural livelihoods and the environment. He has a PhD in agrarian political ecology from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, and has undertaken a wide range of academic research and consultancy in South Asia and Africa in areas such as labour migration, livelihood trajectories, growth linkages, rural economies and climate change. He has over 12 years experience in development policy and advocacy.

Tasneem Mowjee

Senior Policy Advisor

Tasneem is a senior policy advisor, leading on Development Initiatives’ consultancy work. She has over 15 years’ experience of the international aid system, specialising in financing mechanisms as a means to improve the delivery and impact of international assistance. She has conducted reviews of humanitarian financing mechanisms such as Common Humanitarian Funds and Emergency Response Funds as well as Multi-Donor Trust Funds for post-conflict situations. For the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative, she carried out a study of the indirect support costs that humanitarian organisations charge.

Tasneem has also engaged in policy work. This has included undertaking the humanitarian segments of the DAC Peer Reviews of Finland and Spain. In 2008, she led a review of Denmark as a Good Humanitarian Donor, which resulted in a new Danish humanitarian policy. She has also analysed the international humanitarian architecture for AusAID, as part of the update of its Humanitarian Action Policy. In early 2009, Tasneem undertook country case studies in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo for the NGOs and Humanitarian Reform project (a DFID-funded project being implemented by a consortium of UK NGOs).

Tasneem’s academic qualifications include an MBA and a PhD in NGO-donor funding relationships from the London School of Economics.

Corinne Durbin

Office Co-Ordinator

Corinne runs the main Development Initiatives HQ in Wells as well as coordinating the facilities that enable everyone to work from their remote bases.

Corinne joined us from a marketing and advertising agency and brings with her over 20 years’ experience from the banking, construction, media and service industries.

Simon Parrish

Technology Solutions Advisor

Simon works chiefly on the aidinfo programme, advising on data standards and the application of technology.

He is currently providing support to the Technical Advisory Group of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), leading on the data formats, technical architecture and systems workstream. This will support existing and new information providers in assessing impact and implementing the IATI standard.

Simon joined us from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and brings first-hand experience of delivering improvements to the systems that underpin donor business processes and systems.

Prior to joining DFID, Simon worked at the BBC as a media data consultant, analysing complex data requirements and advising on the use of data standards.

Janet Reilly

HR Finance & Projects Manager

Janet is our human resources, finance and projects manager. Her HR career spans over 15 years, 10 of which were spent at a blue chip professional services firm in London. After taking a short career break to spend time with her children, Janet joined Development Initiatives in January 2007.

Janet provides a range of HR support, including developing HR policy, management and development; performance management; recruitment and retention; and employee relations In addition, Janet manages the contracts and relationships of our privately funded projects, overseas business management, finances and payroll.

Janet is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development,

Victoria Room

Policy and Programme Officer

Victoria is the policy and programme officer for aidinfo. She coordinates the day-to-day management of workstreams, preparing reports to funders and representing aidinfo at external meetings. Victoria is responsible for coordinating engagement with southern partner organisations and northern NGOs as well as leading the bottom-up tracking project. In addition, Victoria is developing a network of champions for greater aid transparency leading workstreams that build and publicise evidence in the form of written use cases.

Prior to joining Development Initiatives, Victoria worked in a similar role for Panos.

Victoria has a Masters in International Development Studies.

Kerry Smith

Programme Officer

Kerry provides programme support across the Development Initiatives portfolio, most notably taking responsibility for the financial management of all grant-based budgets as well as taking the lead on the non-DAC donor workstream for the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme.

Kerry’s main responsibilities include: conducting desk-based research; analysing aid data; coordinating and liaising with the aidinfo consortium; recruiting and managing interns from southern based organisations and university institutions; managing the Commit4Africa project; and organising and attending external meetings.

Kerry first started working with Development Initiatives on an internship in May 2007 while studying for an MSc in International Development at the University of Bath. Prior to that, Kerry lived and worked in Japan and also worked as a volunteer in Nigeria as part of VSO’s Global Xchange programme.

Rob Tew

Economics and Statistics Advisor

Rob works across a number of projects and programmes within Development Initiatives as an economics and statistics advisor.

As part of the aidinfo programme, Rob has carried out studies on the status of aid information in a number of partner countries and he represents aidinfo on the Technical Advisory Group of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). He is also undertaking analysis of donor budgeting processes as part of the Budget 4 Change programme. Rob also carried out statistical analysis of aid data for The DATA Report 2009.

Prior to working for Development Initiatives, Rob gained over 10 years' experience of implementing information management programmes in the financial services sector.

Rob has a first-class honours degree in Development and Economics from the London School of Economics.

Carolyn Culey

Senior Policy Advisor

Carolyn is the senior policy advisor on the aidinfo programme.

Carolyn has 15 years’ policy and campaigning experience in the international development sector. She led Oxfam GB’s parliamentary and government relations work for 11 years and has since worked for a wide range of NGOs on a freelance basis, offering strategic advice and undertaking campaign evaluations.

Carolyn was a major contributor to the Global Humanitarian Assistance 2007/2008 report – writing the chapter on 'Counting Humanitarian Assistance' – and also the special report on NGO funding that we undertook for Irish Aid.

Lisa Walmsley

Communications and Data Advisor

Lisa leads the data, communications and official development assistance (ODA) workstreams on the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) programme.

Lisa has over 12 years’ experience of data analysis, interpretation, presentation and communication for policymakers and industry experts in communications technology and international development. Four of these years were spent in humanitarian funding and reporting functions within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – firstly as an executive assistant within the international aid department of the British Red Cross and later as a desk editor within the external resources department of the ICRC, Geneva.

Lisa first started working with Development Initiatives on a consultancy basis in May 2006, joining the organisation on a permanent basis in January 2008. Her latest projects for Development Initiatives include: the production of the GHA Report 2009, development of the Global Humanitarian Assistance brand and logo and website redevelopment.

Lisa is fluent in French and Spanish.

Asma Zubairi

Economics and Statistics Analyst

Asma works as the economics and statistics analyst for Development Initiatives, analysing data for use across programmes. She is currently working on the business case for aidinfo and a cost benefit analysis that will fed into the work being carried out by the Technical Advisory Group of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Asma has also played a key role in analysing data for our work with ONE/DATA. She will be working on our Budget4Change programme.

Prior to working at Development Initiatives, Asma spent three years working at the Ministry of Finance in Malawi as a senior budget officer.

Asma has a Masters in global political economy.

Hannah Glanville

Programme Officer

Hannah is a programme officer and works across all Development Initiatives’ programmes.

Hannah is currently providing support to the International Aid Transparency Initiative as secretariat to the Technical Advisory Group. In addition she maintains the aidinfo project workplan and also coordinates the Wider Aid Transparency group.

Other responsibilities include desk-based research, analysing aid data and taking a lead on the financing mechanisms workstream of the Global Humanitarian Assistance Programme.

Hannah has a Masters in International Social Development and prior to that spent a year working for the British Council in Mexico City as part of her undergraduate studies.

Sarah Chambers

Finance Officer

Sarah is our finance officer and is central to the efficient operation of both our private consultancy practice and the not-for-profit company. Her key role is to keep an official track of company spending and an accurate trail of all the financial movements.

Sarah’s role covers day-to-day bookkeeping, performing monthly payroll and also covering certain HR duties. One of Sarah’s objectives is to make sure the company keeps up to date with all relevant legislation in the financial field.

Prior to working for Development Initiatives Sarah spent six years in a restaurant partnership, during which time she obtained her qualification as a bookkeeper with the International Association of Bookkeepers.

Shane Griffiths

Online/IT Specialist

Shane works across multiple projects and programmes within Development Initiatives as an online/IT specialist. Shane works closely with programme leaders to identify the technical needs and advises on how the use of the Internet and technology could help deliver on various workstreams within the programme.

Shane has been responsible for the redesign of a wide range of websites including aidinfo.org, globalhumanitarianassistance.org and this one! He has also been involved in a number of consultancy engagements helping to deliver websites such as aidtransparency.net and budget4change.org

Shane also focuses a large amount of time on the internal IT processes at Development Initiatives, constantly looking at innovative ways of communication and collaboration. He is currently working on creating a development calendar to track important events in the development community and a graph-led site to showcase interesting charts and visualisations. Shane is very passionate about the Internet, standards and open data and how it could contribute to poverty elimination.

Shane has a first class honours degree in computer systems and networks.

Jan Kellett

Programme Leader, GHA

Jan leads the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme.

Jan has recently joined Development Initiatives after spending more than 10 years working in some of the most complex humanitarian and recovery contexts, mostly for the United Nations.

He has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Indian Kashmir, Nepal, Bangladesh, Namibia, Jordan, and the Balkans and brings a range of experience in post-conflict and post-disaster settings, from the management of post-conflict recovery programmes at field level through to senior level UN coordination and leadership duties. In the four years leading up to joining Development Initiatives, Jan was senior advisor to various UN resident and humanitarian coordinators.

Jan holds a first class degree in Media Arts from Royal Holloway and a Masters in Civilisation and Barbarism from Queen Mary and Westfield.

Jane Keylock

Policy Advisor

Jane is a policy advisor for the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme. She is responsible for managing the domestic response and Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) workstreams. As part of the domestic response work, Jane is managing detailed field studies looking into domestic response in two countries.

Jane has extensive experience of emergency nutrition programmes in East Africa and South Asia, working with Ministries of Health, NGOs, UNICEF and research organisations both at operational and policy level. This encompassed complex and natural disasters as well as transitioning emergency programmes into a development context.

Rachel Scott

Senior Communications and Policy Advsior

Rachel has recently joined us as the Senior Programme Advisor for Development Initiatives specialising in humanitarian evidence, humanitarian and disaster risk, empowerment of Southern organisations and communications.

Rachel has over ten years experience in the humanitarian sector, working with UNICEF, UN-OCHA and a number of different NGOs, both in the field and at headquarters. This experience has encompassed policy roles, as well as operational programming and coordination across a variety of sectors, in both complex emergency and disaster environments.

Rachel has a Master of International Relations, and a Bachelor of Commerce. English is her first language, and she is also fluent in French.

Isabel Bucknall

Programme/Research Assistant

Isabel recently started working as a Programme Assistant for Development Initiatives, having spent two months over summer 2009 working as an intern. She is offering support to Global Humanitarian Assistance and Aidinfo programmes, as well as helping with office administration.

Isabel graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in July, having studied Theology and Religious Studies, with a focus on Indian religions and interfaith affairs. Over the past four years, she has spent nine months in India, teaching English and researching for her academic work.