Kazakhstan – theNRgroup

23 June 201917 July 2021

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

CV: Mackenzie 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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9 June 201421 January 2015

Mike Holland

Mike has over 30 years experience of long-term assignments and short missions on: project identification and design; and financial, personnel and technical management of large development projects and government departments. He is very much the generalist, with rural development expertise encompassing: social and technical aspects of soil and water conservation; environmental assessment; land-use and natural resource planning; farmer support services; smallholder crop and livestock production; livelihood systems; indigenous peoples’ development; small-scale irrigation; forestry and sawmill management. He is fluent in the Mauritian Creole language and has excellent Spanish

Email: mike.holland @ thenrgroup.net

CV: Holland EU CV

Country Experience: Argentina, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Saint Helena, Slovak Republic, Tanzania, UK

9 June 201421 January 2015

Judith Pender

Judith has specialised in applying biogeographical techniques to a range of research areas, including migrant insect pests and vectors of disease. She has designed and implemented Geographical Information Systems to address data management and analysis in subjects such as the development of locust information management systems, research into the effects of tsetse fly control on land use, the management of natural resources in peri urban areas in relation to water resources and rat infestation problems and land land use of contaminated land. She has over 40 years experience in sub-Saharan Africa , Middle East , China and Central Asia , and speaks some French and Russian.

Email: judith.pender @ thenrgroup.net

CV: Pender CV

Country Experience: China, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Yemen, Zimbabwe

23 April 201413 September 2018

Anthony Pope

Anthony Pope has over 30 years’ experience in practical agriculture and consultancy in many different countries. Most recently, he established an advisory service to support livestock farmers with bovine TB issues in the South West of England. This entailed working with Defra, AHVLA and other industry stakeholders in order to develop the integrity of the Service. he has a broad background in the establishment of new projects throughout the World, for the public, private and governmental sectors, including the FAO, IFAD and UNOPS, and the EU. He has the background and knowledge to identify, plan and establish new projects together with the ability to control budgets and evaluate completion against specification. he has a deep interest in Conservation Agriculture (CA) technology with its practical and sustainable solution to halt declining crop yields, and reverse soil erosion, soil degradation and the decline in soil fertility.

Email: anthony.pope @ thenrgroup.net
CV: Anthony Pope CV

Country Experience: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Malaysia, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, UK, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Availability:

13 March 201428 June 2022

Nick Willoughby

Nick is a senior manager of projects relating to the sustainability of aquatic resources, the environment and biodiversity. He has had over 40 years of experience working for a wide range of international donors in the planning, management and field operations of projects in tropical and temperate waters and wetlands. He has extensive experience of leading and co-ordinating international and national teams of development professionals, and in producing high quality reports on time. He has been particularly successful in recent years in turning around major projects at risk of failure under earlier management. He has undertaken long term residential work in Indonesia, Fiji, Malawi and Nigeria, and has worked for shorter periods in approximately 25 other countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean and Europe. His career has been initially as an independent consultant; then as the Fisheries and Coastal Zones Projects Manager for the Natural Resources Institute UK; and latterly as an independent consultant again.

Email: nick.willoughby @ thenrgroup.net
CV: Nick Willoughby CV Nick Willoughby CV -EU
Country Experience: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, South Pacific, Tanzania, Thailand, Tobago, Uganda, Zambia.
Availability: Short term activities overseas or in UK

13 March 201410 June 2020

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.

Email: paul.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.

13 March 201423 June 2019

Mark Ritchie

Mark has been involved in agricultural development worldwide, especially in Africa and Asia for over 30 years. In the last 15 years he has undertaken diverse consulting assignments in environmental impact assessment and in project evaluation for DFID, JICA, the EC, ADB, and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a growing emphasis on developing resilience in the face of Climate Change. During 2011 he has been involved in an ex-post environmental impact assessment of the Malawi Government’s flagship agricultural programme, the Farm Input Subsidy Programme. In 2010 he collaborated with members of the Tropical Agriculture Association and the UK No-Till Alliance to prepare an Open Letter to the British Government, recommending a greater focus of attention and resources on Zero-Tillage. During 2009-2011 he worked with the HALO Trust to assist them in promoting linkages between mine clearance and development and enhancing understanding within the sector of the controversial concept of land release and the appropriate evaluation of mine clearance outputs and outcomes (see report). He has worked as an agricultural adviser with the Ministry of Agriculture for UNDP in East Timor (2004-5), led a locust management project for the Asian Development Bank in Kazakhstan (2001-2003) and a farming systems development project for DFID in Malawi (1996-2000). Mark has considerable experience in the management of interdisciplinary international project teams; participatory formulation and management of NR development projects with stakeholders; participatory development of on-farm crop and pest management technologies; institutional capacity building; design, organization and delivery of practical training courses; evaluation of development projects and project cycle management.

Email: mark.ritchie @ thenrgroup.net

CV: Mark Ritchie CV

Country Experience: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (PRC), Colombia, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Côte d’Ivoire, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, UK, Uzbekistan, Zambia

Availability:

13 March 201427 April 2015

Carol Kerven

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.

Email: carol.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:

12 March 201423 June 2019

Lynne Barratt

Lynne is an environmental specialist with over 25 years experience of working in tropical environments throughout the world and specialising in marine projects in the Middle East. Projects have ranged from environmental impacts of coastal developments, public awareness projects, education projects and tourism master planning. She has also been involved in a number of projects in the Caribbean, South East Asia, South Asia and Africa, mostly associated with marine environmental management and planning. Since becoming independent she has focussed on the provision of short-term services to a variety of clients both in the private and government sectors. Although still specialising in marine issues, she has also been involved in more terrestrial projects including a number related to the tourism industry. She has worked fairly extensively for DFID in Africa looking at change management in the government sector using the provision of environmental services as an issues-based project to promote transparency and accountability in government. She is currently working on four projects in Bahrain, all concerned with environmental assessment, development of environmental management plans and the identification of compensation packages associated with major dredging and reclamation projects. She is also using environmental sustainability concepts to inform the master plan designs. She is also a project monitor and evaluator for the EU LIFE Environment and Nature Programmes.

Email: lynne.barratt @ thenrgroup.net

CV: Lynne Barratt – CV

Country Experience: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Estonia, Eritrea, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Montenegro, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, St Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, UK, Yemen.

Availability: