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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Martin Stewart

Martin StewartMartin is a multi-skilled Senior Manager and Teamleader with an MBA and 40 years experience of rural development, governance, watershed management, forestry and livelihoods projects and programmes in Africa and South Asia. Martin has expertise in managing multi-disciplinary teams and programmes delivering institutional development, organisational change and capacity building; he has proven skills in Monitoring & Evaluation, and in training. 

Working primarily on long-term multi-year postings, Martin has worked in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, and Pakistan as well as the UK. He is now Chief Technical Adviser working with the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia on a large multi-state watershed development project (Sustainable Land Management-Phase III), funded by KfW, ‘The German Development Bank’. Employed by GITEC Consult GmbH he is helping the Ministry to manage regional and national technical consultancy teams, and a Euro ‘Disposition Fund’ account.


Emailmartin.stewart1@ thenrgroup.net

CVStewart CV

Country Experience:  Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, UK.

Mike Holland

Mike-HollandMike 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


Emailmike.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

Darren Connaghan

connaghanInitially trained as a Cartographer and as a GIS scientist, Darren has over 12 years consultancy experience in the UK and overseas. He has worked on a variety of short (2-4 months) and longer term (18-21 months) projects in 4 distinct regions (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia). Darren is able to apply his GIS skills to a variety of specialist fields ranging from Oil and Gas exploration, Fisheries management, Tourism, Environment monitoring, GPS/GIS training, Cartographic design and more recently, the important field of Humanitarian activities in post disaster scenarios via his voluntary involvement in www.mapaction.org. His leadership skills and flexible approach to problems enables him to see the answers to many technical and difficult problems.

Emaildarren.connaghan @ thenrgroup.net

CVConnaghan CVConnaghan CV

Country ExperienceArmenia, China, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, USA, Yemen

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.

Elizabeth Kiff

Liz Kiff

Elizabeth Kiff is a trained agriculturalist, natural resource manager and environmentalist, with over 30 years practical engagement at project and programme level. She has experience at all stages of programme formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation with specific inputs to project design, proposal preparation, programme implementation and results-based management. This has been with a range of clients including government, international donor organisations, NGOs, private consulting firms and research institutions. Experience with funders includes ADB, CONCERN, DfID, EU, FAO, FINNIDA, IFAD, OXFAM, UNDP, UNEP, WFP. Long-term assignments include agricultural extension in community development programmes, implementation of sustainable farming systems in watershed management project, research programme management, and the communication of outputs and training.  Recent assignments include integrating climate change mitigation priorities within agriculture and forestry projects, under GEF funding. With long-term overseas experience in the Philippines, Nepal, India and Ghana, she has particular experience of issues relating to climate change adaptation, livelihood enhancement, farm intensification, crop-livestock interactions, nutrient management, crop diversification and the farm-forest interface.

Email:   elizabeth.kiff@thenrgroup.net  

CV:        http://CVLiz_Kiff2020.pdf   http://EU_CVLiz Kiff2020.pdf

Country Experience:  Bhutan, Botswana, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, North Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Zambia,  Zimbabwe

Availability: Please enquire

Jonathan Coulter

Jonathan is now retired, but in good health and may be available in some cases.

He has assisted over thirty developing countries in the development of agricultural value chains, making findings more widely available through public presentations and publications. Has worked extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa (anglo- franco- luso-phone and Horn of Africa), Latin America and southern Asia, for clients including the World Bank group, EU, DFID, UNCTAD, FAO, CFC, USAID, French, Swiss and Dutch Cooperation, FINNIDA, TechnoServe, CARE and various consulting companies. Has advised on policies and tested approaches through practical initiatives to improve the performance of marketing systems. His main areas of expertise are: policies and practicalities of developing agricultural commodity markets in southern countries; the organisation of warehouse receipt systems and inventory credit; farmer access to input supplies, financial services and markets, and; the economics of post-harvest handling. His educational background covers economics, business management and marketing, and he is experienced in the preparation, financial and economic appraisal, management and evaluation of projects. Speaks Spanish (bilingual), French (fluent) and Portuguese (‘good enough to speak in public’).

Emailjonathan.coulter @ thenrgroup.net

CV: Coulter CV to retirement in 2018

Country Experience:  Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chad, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, India, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Availability: retired – may be available if job is of unusual interest