Development communication, M&E and research

Jan is now a Director of iDC, having recently completed an MSc in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He has a particular interest in development communication and research, and since joining iDC has worked on a diverse range of projects, including: a livelihood and human security study in Puntland and Jubaland to inform a baseline survey for Diakonia’s Somalia Rights Programme; a livelihoods assessment in the Dadaab refugee camp; defining the resilience concept for DRC’s GROW Pillar Framework for the Horn of Africa and Yemen; working as the lead data analyst for the Third-Party Monitoring for UN OCHA of 35 CHF-funded projects in Somalia; documenting Stories of Change for Diakonia Sweden’s Lake Victoria Rights Programme on Mfangano Island; and conducting political-economy analyses for Kenya and numerous towns in northern Somalia. He is also a practicing journalist, having written articles for London’s Evening Standard, The East African, and various other news outlets.

Human rights and gender

Elizabeth has fifteen years’ experience in the field of human rights, advocacy and governance, access to justice and project management at national and regional levels, and overseeing and monitoring numerous technical assistance projects. With a legal training background specialising in international human rights law, she has worked in Lesotho, Uganda, Rwanda and the UK on numerous projects. Her experience includes the application of rights-based approaches, conducting needs assessments and studies, and developing practical and situation-centred guides including the development of manuals on: the work of local council courts in Uganda (particularly developing the chapters on human rights, children’s rights, the Uganda Children’s Act and the Domestic Violence Act); human rights-based approaches in northern and north-eastern Uganda (Karamoja, Teso, Lang’o and Acholi) for CSOs and CBOs; and access to justice institutions in Zambia. She was head of the Rwanda office of the human rights organisation, African Rights from 2002 – 2005 where she was involved in documenting incidences and consequences of the 1994 Genocide with the aim of giving voice to the most vulnerable and sharing the testimonies. This included conducting studies on sexual and gender-based violence, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since 2005 she has held numerous managerial positions at ILI-ACLE, an institution involved in capacity building and legal and judicial reform on the African continent. Among the numerous projects she has coordinated include a pro-poor integrity programme funded by DfID to strengthen the integrity of local council courts through a series of consultations and rights-based training in several districts in Uganda. She has closely collaborated with iDC on the implementation of several access to justice projects in Uganda and Zambia.

Tijan is the Business Development and Research Manager at iDC, carrying out administrative, financial and consultative duties for the company. His duties include managing logistics for consultants on assignments, managing contracts for associate consultants and field enumerators, carrying out research activities during consultancy engagements, proposal writing, website management, and managing other business administration activities. He has assisted on a number of consultancy engagements, including: Providing research assistance, support in report writing, and the conduct of key informant interviews for an external evaluation of the UN Durable Solutions Initiative in Somalia of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC); supporting the team on qualitative data analysis for a food security project implemented by Action Medeor in Banadir region, Somalia; providing back office support on two migration-related assignments with the British Council.

M&E, education and capacity development 

Abdikadir joined iDC as a full time Senior Consultant at the start of 2017. Since then, he has been a lead consultant on iDC’s UNDP Somalia Third Party Monitoring assignment. He has also been involved in various projects with GIZ. He is a humanitarian and development practitioner with vast experience in education, TVET/youth employment, livelihoods programming and management, as well as international consulting, working with diverse stakeholders in poor and vulnerable communities in situations of chronic conflict, political instability and economies in transition as well as post – conflict settings and reconstruction processes. Abdikadir is very familiar with the Somalia context, being fully conversant with the country’s prevailing socio-economic and political realities, the emerging trends and the present challenges and dynamics facing youth and women in particular. He is equally well-versed with major international intervention strategies for Somalia, national policies, strategies and frameworks for development.

M&E, data analysis

Kelvin is a M&E specialist with an MSc in Monitoring and Evaluation of Population and Development Programmes from the University of Nairobi. He has over eight years of experience monitoring programmes in the development field. His focus is detailed, and includes conducting baseline surveys, capacity building & training, data analysis (Using Excel, Kobo Toolbox, ODK, Stata, and NVivo), data visualisation, designing both quantitative and qualitative tools for use in assignments, developing results-based frameworks, third-party monitoring (TPM) and conducting impact evaluations. He also has experience in project reporting, which has been utilised in UN, USAID, EU and DFID projects. He has worked with the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN in Somalia and Kenya as an M&E specialist on various food security, CFW and resilience projects. He is currently consulting with IDC on different projects, which include carrying out data analysis and M&E as part of iDC’s team assigned for TPM of 35 CHF-funded projects in Somalia for UN OCHA on a recently concluded assignment. He has also conducted a baseline survey and third-party monitoring for a food security project in Somalia funded by Action Medeor, as well as data analysis in a TPM assignment of a health and wash project with the same donor. In addition, he led quantitative data analysis for an Endline evaluation of a project titled “Enhancing Durable Solutions for and Reintegration of Displacement Affected Communities in Somaliland” for the Somaliland Durable Solutions Consortium. Having worked in Somalia, he has a proven capacity to undertake travel for field work in hardship countries which is further supported by the UN SSAFE training certification that he has previously been accorded.

Public health and border health security specialist

Sammy has over 32 years’ experience in the public health sector and donor-funded programmes since 1986. His areas of expertise include general public health, border health security, health systems management and public health emergency response planning, especially at points of entry (POEs) – ports, airports and ground crossings. He moved through the ranks from District to National level, recently heading Port Health Services Division at the Ministry of Health (MOH). At the sub-national level, he was the Deputy District Public Health Officer for Bungoma (1995-1997) and District Public Health Officer for Busia District (2001 – 2006). In both Districts, he was responsible for cross border surveillance of health threats to ensure border health security. He was deployed to Ministry of Health Headquarters in 2006 where he was the Focal Officer for prevention of communicable diseases within the Division of Environmental Health until 2007.

For 12 years from 2008, he headed the Division of Port Health Services in the Ministry that is responsible for border health security in the country. During this period, he attended a number of trainings in the US on planning and management of border interventions conducted by the Department of Homeland Security. Subsequently, Sammy has been involved in implementation of a number of multi-agency and multilateral programmes. These include the Border Management Pillar of Security Governance Initiative (SGI) supported by US Government for strengthening border management structures, where he has been the team lead for health component; Global Health Security Agenda for securing national and global health security; International Health Regulations in collaboration with WHO and other stakeholders; and team lead in implementation of the Border Health Capacity Discussion Guide and preparation of Public Health Emergency Response Plans for POEs in collaboration with Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Atlanta, USA. Additionally, Sammy has been leading programmes for training health and non-health actors at POEs in collaboration with CDC and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Between 2015 and 2019, he was the Contact Person for MOH in Border Control and Operations Coordinating Committee chaired by the Ministry of Interior.

Governance and institutional development

Abduba is a governance and institutional development specialist with hands on experience across East Africa and the Horn. His main field of interest revolves around the institutionalisation of local governance by supporting the formulation of policies, systems and tools, and the enhancement of service delivery through capacity development. His involvement with community service and participatory development dates back to 1991, where he worked with the Garba Tulla Development Organisation (GTDO), a community-based organisation in Isiolo County. With GTDO he worked with pastoralist communities ravaged by war, recurrent droughts and cattle rustling. The programme was designed to empower traditional decision-making structures through tailor-made community transformational training, aimed at building good foundations for sustainable development in an integrated manner. As the leader of the organisation, he coordinated various development projects in Education, Food Security, Natural Resource Management, Enterprise Development, Community Based Healthcare, Water and Sanitation, Lobby & Advocacy, and Conflict Resolution.

M&E, project management and capacity building 

Abdullahi is an independent consultant based in Somalia with over ten years of experience. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, project management and capacity building. He has been part of the iDC team as a field monitor in Mogadishu, and has been involved in a UNDP Federalism study and the UNDP Somalia TPM project. Abdullahi has significant experience in project management, having been a Project Manager at Wardi Organisation, Project Officer for Islamic Relief ECHO projects, Project Officer a the Centre for Peace and Democracy (CPD), WASH Coordinator for Islamic Relief, and M&E consultant at BTM.

M&E and capacity building

Ahmed has over five years of experience in monitoring and evaluation of emergency, relief and development programmes in conflict and post-conflict settings. He is currently a consultant at iDC and has been involved with the UNDP Somalia federalism study and TPM. He has carried out M&E of SIDO activities in Mogadishu for the UNDP Somalia TPM. Previous consultancy assignments include: community WASH Consultant for three IDP Camps in Mogadishu; on-call consultant for ICRC’s risk management in Mogadishu; survey Team Leader for COCO for a rapid IDP profiling for over 1,200 Households in Galkacayo contracted by UN-HABITAT; and monitoring consultant for World Concern in Lower Shabelle region. Ahmed has also worked as a training development consultant for the EU training mission in Somalia; a liaison officer for UNSOA; M&E officer for COOPI in Mogadishu and as an M&E assistant for transitional Inc. in Nairobi.

Community development, training, research and Somali expert

Over the last 25 years, Abdulkadir has earned experience in a variety of fields, including programme management, monitoring and evaluation, humanitarian support, emergency relief, provision of basic services to IDPs, and poor rural communities. Within the humanitarian support sector, his services have included: community development projects, emergency feeding, WASH, and building shelter and housing to IDPs and drought-stricken communities. He has also carried out projects focusing on human rights protection and gender issues. His recent assignments have been implemented through a local development, consulting and research organisation called the Somali Development and Consulting Group (SDCG), of which he has been the Executive Director since 2006. From 1997-2000, he was the capacity building trainer for CARE, and a researcher and writer for the Puntland Development Research Centre (PDRC) from 2001 – 2005.

M&E and education 

Amina Guleid joined iDC in 2017 as an Associate Consultant based in Somaliland. She has since worked as a field monitor on the UNDP Somalia TPM project. Prior to joining iDC, she worked as a local consultant in a variety of areas, such as: organisational capacity assessment and development; HIV and AIDS & gender mainstreaming; civic education; community training & mobilisation; teacher trainings; research & assessments; strategic planning for NGOs; and monitoring and evaluation. Amina also worked as an Education Coordinator, and as an Environment and Livelihood Coordinator. She has also garnered managerial experience as the Executive Director for Candlelight NGO and SOWDA.

Health systems and reproductive health

David has over 25 years’ experience of developing, managing, evaluating and providing strategic oversight and vision to multi-sectoral development programmes in Africa and Southeast Asia, with particular emphasis on reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, WASH and community development. He is a seasoned supervisor and mentor with solid experience managing regional and national-level field offices with medical, programmatic, administrative, and finance staff. His employment experience has provided him with many years of practice in conceptualising, designing, and implementing programmes. David is a strategic, analytical, and creative thinker. His background in education gave him a firm foundation with which he has developed technical specialisations in health systems strengthening, programme development, implementation and evaluation. He is widely recognised for his ability to foster successful collaborations with local, international, and donor organisations and for diversifying funding sources and partner organisations.

Integrated water resource management and marine specialist

David Kirugara has nine years’ working experience in spearheading the use of space-based technology for sustainable Water and Marine Resource Management coupled players in the Earth Observation Industry including National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), AU-EU and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EU in developing strategic plans, project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. David Kirugara is also a qualified Physical Oceanographer with a solid scientific background in research spanning sixteen years in different spheres; Marine remote sensing applications, dynamical oceanography and modeling, plus Environmental chemistry.

Community development and M&E

Farhan is a social work and community development specialist. He has been involved in several projects with iDC, including the UNDP federalism study, UNDP Somalia TPM, UN-OCHA Somali TPM and GIZ KAP survey. His experience in community development prior to joining iDC also includes: project assistant for Nordic International Support; consultant for Pact; food security assistant for Solidarities International; hygiene promotion supervisor for NRC; and child protection community worker with Save the children. Farhan also has teaching experience, having worked as a primary teacher for CARE international and NCCK.

M&E, media and communication 

Hussein is skilled in media and communication, with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a diploma in mass media and communication. He operates the iDC Call Centre, located in Mogadishu. Hussein has conducted phone interviews across Somalia and Somaliland for the UNDP Somalia TPM project, UN OCHA TPM of 35 SHF-funded projects in Somalia, and for a GIZ fish consumption KAP survey in Kismayo. He previously worked as a Programme Leader and Producer at a local media house in Mogadishu, and was also the Media and Communications Officer for the Islamic Relief Somalia Programme. He has experience in M&E and has undertaken administration jobs within Mogadishu.

M&E and research 

brahim Mohamud joined iDC in 2017 as a consultant in Puntland. He has since worked as a field monitor on the UNDP Somalia TPM project. He has garnered experience in development having previously worked as a Data Analyst for the Puntland Non-State Actor’s Association (PUNSAA), an M&E Officer for the Japan Centre for Conflict Prevention (JCCP), and as a research assistant for Observatory of Conflict and Violence Prevention (OCVP). Ibrahim has also authored a research paper titled: ‘Attitude towards information accuracy issues among IIUM Students’, which was co-authored by Dr. Akram M. Seki.

Economic development, M&E and project management 

Over the past 18 years, Mohamed Nuur has earned a wealth of experience in economic development, monitoring and evaluation, project management and humanitarian support. He joined iDC in 2016 as an Economic Development Consultant and Third-Party Monitoring Advisor, and has worked on various projects including the UNDP Somalia and UN OCHA third-party monitoring assignments. Prior to joining iDC, Mohamed worked as a livelihood researcher of IDPs in Mogadishu, as a Project Manager for Women and Child care Organisation (WOCCA) and as a coordinator and fundraiser for Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Organisation.

Citizen engagement, communication for social change and media

Communication, advocacy and policy influence: Nicholas has designed and implemented communication strategies intended to persuade policy-makers and influence public attitudes at the local, national and international levels – most often on issues related to social justice and accountability. As part of this work, he has used a number of techniques for mapping networks and policy environments and has helped others to use such tools strategically. He has also organised policy dialogues and other events and has experience overseeing the design and production of written, audio and video materials. Writing and journalism: Nicholas is a skilled writer who enjoys honing the craft. He is particularly accomplished at adapting material across a variety of styles, having published academic articles, news stories, magazine features, editorial pieces and policy briefings. His skills have benefited from seven years of experience as a journalist covering breaking news stories and producing investigative articles in Venezuela, Mexico and Ethiopia. Research: Nicholas’ academic training and work experience have exposed him to an array of research methods – including sampling, survey and questionnaire design, focus groups, ethnographic field research, case study analysis, and basic statistical analysis – though his greatest expertise is with participatory methods.

Law, governance and gender

Pauline possesses sound undergraduate and postgraduate academic qualifications in law from the University of Nairobi and University of Cambridge respectively, and has over twenty years’ experience in judicial practice, teaching law, law and constitutional reform, and participation in governance and human rights advocacy. Of particular relevance is the service she rendered as Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Nairobi, Member of the Devolved Government Task Force, Deputy Secretary of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, Secretary of the Capital Markets Tribunal, and Head of Programmes at the Public Law Institute. She also served as a Judge of the High Court of Kenya. In addition, she has carried out a number of professional assignments on governance, gender and human rights, including a review of Kenya’s Governance Justice Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) Reform Programme; formulation of the of the European Commission’s 10^th EDF Governance and Non-state Actors Programme; evaluations of Sida support to gender equality, human rights and civic education and child rights programmes in Kenya; and research studies on community participation in service provision and sexual and reproductive health.

Adult and continuing education expert

David Macharia specialises in a number of areas, including innovative and participatory training techniques and methods for empowering adult learners at all levels, including literacy; design and development of learning materials; training of trainers; curriculum development; programme design and budgeting; and training and development of materials in distance education. An additional area of interest is Peace Education that he has developed in the last six years where he has been Chief Facilitator in Peace and Anti-Racism Education (PARE), a project that trains school teachers and community activists with the aim of creating safe schools and communities in South Africa. David was Founder President of the Kenya Adult Education Association in 1974, and a Council Member of the Kenya Institute of Education, 1974 to 1986.

M&E, training and communication

Ruth is an independent consultant based in Kenya with over fifteen years’ experience. Her areas of expertise include capacity development, monitoring and evaluation and programme design and management at national, local government and community level. Ruth has significant experience in the region undertaking evaluations/reviews and conducting studies to inform strategy development, programme design and improving implementation. She has increasingly complemented her expertise in capacity development with monitoring and evaluation. This has included conducting capacity assessments, developing institutional strengthening strategies as well as developing results frameworks for monitoring and evaluation. Ruth’s strength lies in working closely with organisations to realise their work plans through coaching and mentoring. The assignments undertaken are either short or long-term projects for a variety of bilateral and multilateral development partners, NGOs and CBOs in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. These include agencies such as the UN, the World Bank, Dfid, Danida, the EU, the Netherlands Embassy, as well as INGOs such as Caritas Switzerland, Diakonia Sweden and the International Centre for Research on Women.

Humanitarian, emergency, conflict and post-conflict specialist

Philippe has over fifteen years’ working experience in development, working in such areas as donor coordination and aid effectiveness in conflict and post-conflict countries. His experience with the UN system, the INGO and donor communities has been demonstrated by his capacities to deliver complex programming related to humanitarian assistance, development and political/security programmes over the years. His is known for his mediation and communication skills and works well in a multi-cultural setup.

Security and risk management

Tom Walker is a professional and driven risk management consultant with significant experience garnered in African emerging market business environments. He has additional experience in the world of emerging-market private equity investment. Tom is a proven leader with strong analytical, negotiation, solution development and project management skills developed in high intensity military, post-crisis and frontier market business settings. Tom spent eleven years in the British Army before moving into the commercial arena in 2009. He is innovative and resourceful, with strong communication skills and the ability to quickly establish strong working relationships and buy-in across multi-national backgrounds and disciplines. He has an eight-year track record in designing and managing strategic and operational risk mitigation / project management strategies underpinned by local initiatives, host community involvement and local capacity building. Social and governmental license to operate, secured through enduring relationships and partnerships, enriching programmes, employee development and corporate social responsibility sit at the heart of what has been delivered. Tom is a Swahili speaker with family ties to Eastern Africa since the1930’s, and who maintains a particularly strong business and social network that spans the governmental, military, commercial business and social spectrums, and which extends from the Horn of Africa to Tanzania.

Research and data analysis

Victor is an experienced social scientist, development researcher, consultant and project manager conversant with Theory of Change in international development. He has been involved in a wide range of projects across the East Africa region. With nine years’ work experience, Victor has effectively managed multi-disciplinary teams to improve the effectiveness of development programmes and organisations in the East Africa region. He has been involved in project conceptualisation, development, evaluation and management in the areas of food security, livelihoods, knowledge management, HIV/AIDS Prevention, food processing, markets development and financial services. He is experienced in developing systems for tracking, documenting, and collating, analysing and reporting progress in development interventions. His recent experience deals with developing market potential for high value traditional crops, renewable energy, food processing and support in policy and practice communication.

Development planning and research

Wendy is an experienced sociologist and development planner and researcher, and has worked for over thirty years in developing countries – particularly in Africa. She has undertaken assignments in a variety of fields, including urban poverty, urban development planning, decentralisation/local government reform and local governance, institutional development, community participation and participatory approaches, social infrastructure, legal, transport, environment, energy, agriculture, women in development, and gender and development. Her earlier professional experience as a physical planner involved the production of local, urban and regional plans with a particular input on population, housing and social infrastructural components. Her professional expertise has been gained through participation in multi-disciplinary teams as well as holding team leader positions on many assignments.