Catherine Mackenzie

Catherine is a multi-disciplinary development specialist, with degrees in social anthropology, forestry and zoology. She has over 35 years’ experience in rural development and natural resources management, particularly the social dimensions of forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The “development industry” threatens to turn Catherine into a grumpy old woman.  She has an aversion to quick fixes and box-tickers, and a specialty in telling people, especially managers, things they don’t want to hear.   But she remains highly committed to objectives of sustainable development and still seeks to inform and inspire her analysis through evidence from real field work, especially talking to people.  Her talents are best used in participatory and innovative planning and problem solving.  Some people do like working with her!

Her last major assignment before COVID-19 was with the EU’s Value Chain Analysis for Development https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/value-chain-analysis-for-development-vca4d. (VCA4D) study of palm oil in Indonesia.  As the sociologist on the team, she was responsible for examining issues of social sustainability (labour, land, gender, food and nutrition, living conditions and social capital), as well as contributing to stakeholder, governance and inclusivity analyses.  The study, which also examines economic and environmental sustainability,  aimed to help create a shared understanding between the EU and Indonesia on critical palm oil issues.

She also participated in the development of management plans for mangrove forest reserves in Guyana, under EU funding.

Since COVID, her only work has been with the UK’s Darwin Initiative, conducting a home-based mid-term review of a conservation project in Guinea Bissau, which included ecological and community-oriented interventions related to the recent discovery of leprosy in chimpanzees.

Prior to this, Catherine was involved on a part-time basis on two long-term German-funded (KfW) conservation projects in Indonesia:  Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Protection in the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem (Aceh, Sumatra) and Forest Programme III in Lore Lindu National Park (Central Sulawesi).

Other recent work has increasingly focused on climate change, including an analysis of the Theory of Change for REDD+ and Norway’s ICFI programme , the “real-time” evaluation of Norway’s ICFI country programme in Indonesia for Norad,  a review of  Social Standards and Safeguards for REDD+ http://www.fcmcglobal.org/documents/Safeguards_Paper.pdf for USAID, preparation of Vietnam’s REDD-Readiness PIN, planning for social dimensions of pioneering REDD+ projects, and backstopping CARE’s community-based adaptation programme in Mozambique.

Her participatory forest management inventory and planning work in Sierra Leone has resulted in the first two forest co-management agreements in that country. She has been involved in biodiversity conservation and protected areas management work for many years and in many countries: Ghana (bushmeat), Mongolia, Tibet, Guyana, Indonesia, Bolivia, Brazil, Tanzania, the Galapagos and the Caribbean. Her work on forest governance and illegal logging in Mozambique is well-known as the first study to document the role of the Chinese in exploiting Africa’s hardwoods.  She has worked on  FLEGT preparation projects for the EU in Indonesia (2003), and in Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa (2012).

In these assignments she applies core competencies in social/poverty/ policy/institutional analysis, conflict resolution, monitoring and evaluation, impact assessment, research and teaching. She has experience in all phases of the project management cycle (identification, preparation, appraisal, management, technical advice, monitoring, and evaluation), working with World Bank, ADB, FAO, GEF, EU, DFID, Norad, USAID, DGIS, IUCN, WWF, FFI, SNV, CARE and others. An enthusiastic team worker and effective communicator, she has been team leader on several long-term participatory forestry projects and research projects.  She is a skier and scuba-diver, plays tennis, rides motorcycles and bicycles, got her PPL, and speaks very good Indonesian and Portuguese and functional French and Spanish.

Email:  Cathy.Mackenzie@theNRgroup.net

CVMackenzie EU CV 2019 Mackenzie ADB CV Feb 17

Country Experience:   Indonesia (including Sulawesi, Sumatera, Kalimantan (E,W, S), Moluccas, W Papua), Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India (including Sikkim, Kerala, Karnataka), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China (including Tibetan Areas of Qinghai and Sichuan, Guizhou, Hainan, Shanghai), Vietnam, Cambodia,  Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador (incl. Galapagos),  Guyana, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, Barbados, St Lucia, Dominican Republic, Haiti.

Availability Catherine is currently UK-based and available for both short and long-term assignments.  

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Paul Schoen

Paul Schoen

Paul Schoen is seasoned agricultural economist with over 29 years of international experience in development projects.  After undertaking three university degrees (Hull University, London School of Economics (MSc International Relations, Law and Politics) and Wye College (MSc in Agricultural Economics), UK) he undertook various long and short term assignments in Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, and other parts of Asia (South, South East, and Far East), all regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and CIS States. He is experienced in monitoring and evaluation (including mid-term, terminal and ex-post evaluations), economic and financial analysis, project identification, project-preparation, and appraisal and cost-benefit analysis. Evaluations have also utilized tools such as multiplier effects (employment generation and gross margin analysis across sectors analysed) and value chain analysis. He conducts studies as well as business planning and SME support.  He has worked mainly on agricultural development programmes and projects including design of sector support initiatives and strategies for agrarian change such as trade, finance and investment options.  In addition, he provides independent project monitoring and evaluation services to a wide range of organisations including development agencies, NGOs, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and charities. He has also lead a team on developing a portfolio to access climate change funds available worldwide for Nigerian agricultural development. Most of his missions have  been undertaken for UNDP (he worked initially as a Junior Professional Officer when he first started in 1992), EC, FAO, DFID, LuxDev, IFAD, SNV, USAID and USDA, World Bank and numerous private sector corporations and foundations including Agha Khan and ACDI VOCA.

In recent years he has been asked to work on regional SME development (such as for SADC which covered 16 member states), value chain development and strategy formulation.

Other recent work has been supporting the complete overhaul of the Novi Sad Commodity Exchange (NSCOMEX – formerly Produktna Berza)) in Serbia where he is leading a small team of technology, trading and legal specialists) for GIZ and the Government of Serbia (Ministry ion Agriculture). He has also worked in Saudi Arabia in 2018 and 2019 on aquaculture Red Sea development and a global strategy formulation for the National Date Palm Centre.

Emailpaul.schoen @ thenrgroup.net; paul_schoen@yahoo.com 

CV: http://Paul Schoen CV (June 2020) (y).docx

Country Experience: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Liberia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, PNG, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudia Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, the Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, UK, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia.

Availability: Please enquire.

Kate Meadows

Kate Meadows - Social Development

Social Development Consultant, has over twenty years experience in social protection (social impact assessments) and social development (sustainable, socio-economic -community- development). Experience gained working worldwide (including 21 African countries; Anglophone and Francophone) with the United Nations, European Union, World Bank, DFID, African Governments, African and Asian Development Banks, NGOs, the corporate sector (transport, energy and mining), education establishments and the media. With a PhD in Social Analysis of Post Apartheid Community Development her skills developed include: Social Impact Assessments and socio-economic baselines for Resettlement Action Plans – using a community consultation/stakeholder empowerment and risks/benefits approach; Community Social Development and Livelihoods Analysis focus on environment and rural development; Participatory Appraisal and Community Needs Assessments; Socio-economic and Community Analysis; Poverty, situation and policy analysisincluding stakeholder assessment, identification of interest groups, human rights issues and government and community liaison; Governance Assessment and Institutional Strengthening; Policy Advice for Poverty Reduction Strategies(mainstreaming gender and environmental issues); Teaching, training and capacity building – workshops and lectures as well as dissemination of information through radio, video, CD Rom and publications ranging from academic to public relations and policy guidelines for governments and multilateral organizations.

Emailkate.meadows @ thenrgroup.net

CV:  Kate Meadows CV

Country Experience:  Albania, Algeria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, China, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinee, Iceland, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UK, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Availability:

Carol Kerven

Carol Kerven - Development socio-economist

Carol is a social anthropologist by training and a development socio-economist in practice. She has sought to straddle the line between field research on agricultural systems, and engaging in development implementation projects, in the conviction that development work should be better informed by scientific research. Carol began her career working for 6 years in Botswana, doing field work and then on a national survey of human migration and running a research network.  She became interested in extensive livestock systems in semi-arid regions and carried out field research on pastoralist household economies in western Sudan and in Somalia, interspersed with consultancies for USAID, World Bank, IFAD, EC, DANIDA, NORAD, OXFAM.  She then worked for 3 years on a farming systems research programme in Zambia, followed by research on pastoralism at Overseas Development Institute, London, in Mongolia and Namibia. In the mid 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Carol obtained grants for inter-disciplinary research on the impact of decollectivisation on pastoralists, livestock and rangelands in Central Asia.  For the past 15 years she has gained funding to work with Central Asian, European and American researchers and development specialists on the pastoralist systems of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and western China. Grants have been obtained from Aga Khan Foundation, UNDP, USAID, and DFID. In the past ten years, she has carried out consultancies on livestock-related issues in Africa and Asia for FAO, IFAD, EC, IUCN, IIED, USAID and Save the Children USA. Carol edited the journal Nomadic Peoples for 4 years and in 2009 started a new peer-reviewed journal Pastoralism- research, policy and practice, open access published online by Springer.

Emailcarol.kerven @ thenrgroup.net

CV:  Carol Kerven CV

Country Experience:  Afghanistan, Botswana, Britain, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mongolia, Namibia, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Uganda,  Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Availability: