Independent Advisory · East and West Africa &Localisation, Global Health, Assistive Technology
Managing Transitions: aid-dependency exits, outcomes systems, organisational governance
I help NGOs, donors, and health networks move from donor-dependent delivery to accountable, locally led operating models. Specialist depth in assistive technology and localisation across East and West Africa, with wider experience spanning the MENA region.
Philosophy
Too much of what gets called localisation is administrative relocation dressed up as empowerment: the reporting burden moves south, the funding rules stay exactly where they were, and the people doing the actual work absorb the risk without ever holding the budget or the veto.
Genuine ownership looks different. It means a local partner can set the agenda, not just deliver against someone else's logframe. It means they can say no to a donor's terms and the relationship survives it. My research and my field work both start from that distinction, and I don't call something local ownership unless the power actually moved with it, not just the paperwork.
At the same time, I don't treat local actors as passive until a donor grants them power. My doctoral research looks closely at how people find real agency inside rigid systems: adapting imported components, reinterpreting a project's stated goals, quietly building the workaround that keeps a clinic running when the official process can't. I call this harnessing constraint, and it's the other half of the picture. Good localisation design has to build on that existing agency rather than design around it as if it isn't there.
Advisory Services
Designing the handover frameworks that move regional NGO and health networks off multi-year donor grants and into locally owned, self-sustaining operating models, without breaking the service in the process. Built from ongoing work leading multi-country transitions across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Turning activity data (consults, sessions, distributions) into longitudinal outcome evidence donors can actually rely on, at both the individual and population level. Grounded in monitoring and evaluation work for EU-funded health and rehabilitation programmes, plus independent outcomes-design engagements for health platforms operating in fragile or divided systems.
Independent evaluation of NGO structures, board governance, and practitioner-researcher partnerships. Delivered as a strategic advisor to the South West International Development Network, working directly with secretariat staff, boards, and member organisations.
Rapid political economy and governance-risk analysis for programmes operating across fragile, parallel, or non-state systems. Grounded in doctoral research into how localisation actually functions on the ground, not how it reads in a policy paper.
How I Work
Kickoff briefing, review of existing strategy and reporting documents, and interview guides built for each stakeholder tier.
Semi-structured interviews across the organisation, from board members to frontline partners, alongside a systems audit of internal processes.
Interview evidence triangulated against documentary review, so every finding is verified from more than one angle before it's written up.
A full report plus a short, non-technical summary suitable for a board briefing or donor audience.
Typical engagements run 12 to 20 working days, scoped and quoted before work begins.
Engagements usually take one of three shapes: a rapid strategic briefing (2 to 4 weeks), a deeper systemic assessment (6 to 12 weeks), or ongoing advisory support for a longer transition.
Research & Analysis
My PhD examines the politics of localisation in Sub-Saharan Africa, focused on assistive technology and prosthetics and orthotics networks across East and West Africa.
Rather than treating localisation as an ethical promise or a donor checklist, I look at how it actually functions as governance in practice: a set of everyday administrative tasks, funding rules, and reporting routines that shape who holds real decision-making power, regardless of what the strategy document says.
The research traces this across four levels, from global donors and multilateral agencies, through intermediary NGOs and research hubs, down to frontline clinics and the technicians and patients navigating them day to day.
I bridge this with field experience across The Gambia, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and translate it into evaluation methodology, outcomes design, and strategic advice for the organisations actually doing this work.
Long-form essays and field dispatches are linked below via Substack and LinkedIn.
Building On
Field Note
A new prosthetics and orthotics clinic in Bansang, The Gambia, opened with proper ramps and wide doors, exactly what accessible design guidance asks for. The path leading to it was steep, rocky, and unpaved. The hospital CEO explained that the funding covered the building itself; the ramps and the clinic were in scope, the path wasn't.
"It wasn't said defensively. It was just a fact."
The regional governor's office was sympathetic but realistic: the most likely route to a funded path ran through the British High Commission, the UN, or the EU lobbying central government to release money. To put concrete on a path. That's what governance-in-practice actually looks like on the ground, not a failure of goodwill, a question of who gets to decide what counts as "in scope."
Credentials & Track Record
Co-manage a multi-year, EU co-financed programme in The Gambia, and lead multi-country transitions across Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, moving regional grassroots networks from grant dependency to self-sustaining operating models.
Freelance consultancy helping NGOs evaluate their organisational structures and build effective practitioner-researcher partnerships.
Documented success authoring high-value institutional bids and designing strategies that scale smaller NGO operations into larger institutional footprints.
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), examining power dynamics, capital flows, and the politics of localisation.
Contributor partnering with universities, health ministries, and NGOs to build the evidence base for prosthetics and orthotics services in low-resource settings.
University of Southampton, MSc in Amputation & Prosthetic Rehabilitation, bridging international policy with clinical field realities.
Thesis on how small-scale NGOs maximise structural impact through cross-sector partnership design in Uganda.