Affiliated Consultants

July 4, 2017 Comments are off for this post. 

Jane Griffiths – Senior Marketing and Product Development Specialist

Ms. Griffiths has over 20 years of experience in economic development in emerging economies in the artisan sector and eighteen years as a corporate high-end retail executive working collectively in over 60 countries.  Areas of expertise include marketing, value chain development, trade, MSME enterprise development, cultural preservation, capacity building, product development, and program management. 

Relevant regional experience includes living in Pakistan leading marketing efforts in four value chains (including textiles), extensive work in the artisan sector in Central Asia and India, and work in the carpet sector in Afghanistan as trainer and lead in the development of a regional strategy.  Additional relevant experience includes home furnishing trade shows in Germany (Ambiente), France (Maison & Objet), and U.K. (Decorex) as both a participant (Aid to Artisans booth), and buyer for high-end retailers like Neiman Marcus and Gump’s of San Francisco.  Project implementation experience includes USAID, UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank, Smithsonian Institute, Ford Foundation, and Kellogg Foundation. 

Dr Valarie Sands – Organisational Development

Ms. Valarie Sands has over 25 years’ professional experience working in the Ministry of Justice (Victoria), Australian universities, The World Bank, and international aid agency consultancies.  She has undertaken a wide variety of project roles including public servant practitioner, adviser, team leader, consultant, academic, researcher, and trainer.  These roles and projects involve organisational such as: International NGO (World Bank); Central government (Indonesia); State Government (Victoria); local government, parliament (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association); public service including prisons, community corrections, courts, regulator, finance; and trade; NGOs – public health community centre and association; and higher education; employment; sport; youth; and trade sectors. 

In the many roles she has held over the past 25+ years, Dr Sands has been involved in projects requiring extensive stakeholder collaboration and collegiality involving international counterparts, parliamentarians including ministers, public sector officers, NGO representatives, private sector actors, practitioners, university academics, and clients. 

She has an extensive bureaucratic, political, practitioner network and has the ability to draw upon this for professional support and advice when necessary. 

Antonio Giustozzi – Afghan Politics / Access

Dr. Antonio Giustozzi is an independent researcher born in Ravenna, Italy, who took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Giustozzi is arguably the most studious and productive researcher and author on Afghan affairs.  His output is based on insight won during intensive travels to the country far beyond the capital.  He is the author of several articles and papers on Afghanistan, as well as of four books: War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Georgetown University Press), Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: the Neo-Taliban Insurgency, 2002-7 (Columbia University Press), Empires of Mud: War and Warlords in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press), Policing Afghanistan (with M. Ishaqzada, Columbia University Press, 2013), The Army of Afghanistan (Hurst, 2016) and Missionaries of modernity (Hurst, 2016). 

Giustozzi supported ATR as a consultant on ATR’s Humanitarian Access project for NRC, funded through the Afghanistan Common Humanitarian Fund.  The research project aimed to answer the question of how humanitarian needs in hard to access areas of Afghanistan compare to needs elsewhere in the country, and how can humanitarian needs in hard to access areas of Afghanistan be better assessed?  Giustozzi was instrumental in designing ATR’s recommendations to the humanitarian community of how access can improve for humanitarian actors in the complex security environment. 

Sue Newport – Gender, Maternal Health and Vulnerable Groups

Sue Newport has over 20 years of expertise in family planning, sexual/ reproductive/maternal health, gender and vulnerable groups programming.  ATR engaged Newport to act as Team Leader on a baseline and endline assessment of UNICEF’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme designed to increase demand for maternal and newborn health services.  The endline assessment is scheduled for the second half of 2017. 

As Team Leader, Newport has been responsible for overall analysis of results including explaining contradictions or correlations between qualitative and quantitative data, and recommending approaches that would help UNICEF address challenges unveiled through the research.  Moreover, as a Maternal Health expert with extensive experience in Afghanistan, Newport was able to contextualize the research findings to tell UNICEF not only what happened but why it happened, and explain any variation between provinces or disaggregated groups. 

Newport is an experienced senior consultant, lecturer and writer with skills and experience in research and analysis, program design and management, monitoring and evaluation, policy review, communications, strategic planning, organizational development, training and capacity building.  She has a Masters degree in Health Planning, Policy and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and London School of Economics. 

Bethan McEvoy – Child Protection

As a Child Protection Expert with extensive experience in research and program implementation, ATR has been fortunate to obtain the services of Bethan McEvoy.  Most recently this was in support of ATR’s action field research “Strengthening reception and family re-unification of unaccompanied minors and separated children deported through Islam Qala border” for War Child UK in Afghanistan. 

McEvoy was responsible for training field staff, designing research tools, methodology and data collection planning.  Ms. McEvoy also supported ATR to consolidate research findings, in order to submit a synthesis report for WCUK and advocacy document for the government of Afghanistan. 

McEvoy has widespread experience across the child protection sector including authoring “The Impact of War on Children in Afghanistan: A Psycho-Social Approach”, and designing the child participation element of Save the Children International’s child friendly spaces. 

Mr.Bari Himel has over 12 years of consultancy experience in sectors including health systems, business and industrial development.  He was the Technical Assistance Development, Planning and Coordination (TAD&P) consultant for Planning Wing, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) during 2013 to 2016, supporting all the Line Directors under Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program (the 3rd SWAp in Bangladesh) in developing respective TAs, and implementing those.  During this tenure, he also supported Planning Wing in development of Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) and also participated in the Program Implementation Plan (PIP) development process of the 4th SWAp, which is known as 4th Health Nutrition and Population Sector Program (4th HNPSP). 

Himel was also involved in the DFID assignment of developing a TA mechanism for the 4th HNPSP.  He conducted several strategic planning assignments for the DFID funded Developing Midwifery Project in Bangladesh, including its business plan and end of project evaluation.  Himel trained around 75 officials from various ministries and departments in “Integrating Population and Gender Issues in Development Planning”, an initiative of Socio Economic and Infrastructure Division (SEID) of Bangladesh Planning Commission.  Himel is accustomed to the Midterm and End of Project evaluation framework and had conducted several of such evaluations for development projects funded by donors including DFID, USAID and SDC.  His other areas of expertise include supply chain management, institutional development, entrepreneurship development, and qualitative research, which are reflected in numerous consultancy assignment conducted over the last twelve years. 

Apart from his expertise in health system strengthening, Himel is a qualified expert in value chain strengthening.  He was involved in more than twenty-five value chain assessment and value chain strengthening assignments in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.  He has delivered consultancies relevant to market system development and value chain assessment to clients like DFID, USAID, EU, EKN, World Food Program, and SDC.  Academically, Himel is an MBA in Marketing and an Industrial and Production Engineer.  He has got professional level trainings in market system development, strategic planning, market research and project management. 

Aschkan Abdul-Malek – Finance, Strategy, Transactional Law Expert

Mr. Aschkan Abdul-Malek holds a MBA/JD in finance.  He has over 12 years of consultancy experience and work experience for the AlemHealth, Altai Consulting, Heartland Alliance, Merrill Advisory Group, Corporate Executive Board and Harpeth Capital.  He was the CEO (AlemHealth) for Developing digital health solutions connecting Afghan private sector healthcare facilities to Indian and US facilities, developed the technology platform, and deployed it operationally, serving thousands of patients in Afghanistan to date since 2014. 

Abdul-Malek also held a Director position for the Afghanistan Resource Corridor, Skills Development Strategy Mining and Oil & Gas Industry, (World Bank).  In this assignment, Altai Consulting has been contracted by the World Bank to analyse the supply and demand for skills needed by large upcoming mining and oil & gas investments in Afghanistan and design a strategy to build local capacity and boost local employment in the medium and long term.  He developed a prioritized and categorized employment requirements plan for the Aynak and Amu Darya deposits, estimating direct employment impact of extractive assets coming online by skill, and evaluated current and future availability of relevant skills by mapping the supply from current vocational and technical education programmes and institutes, as well as the demand from private sector participants. 

He was project director for the Agricultural Value Chain Assessment in Kandahar and Helmand (USAID/IRD) in 2012.  He developed the research methodology and tools for farm-gate, retailer, and stakeholder assessments, training 40 interviewers on the tools and complex cropping concepts, managed logistics of data collection of in excess of 2,000 interviews, and developed study of crop mapping, complex cropping activities, and economic vulnerability of farmers in the provinces, identifying key areas of opportunity to advance food security.  During 2007 – 2008 he was the consultant for a management assignment (Coperative executive board).  He identified and scoped problems and potential solutions through primary research and quantitative analysis with senior executives and their functional teams, developing exportable insights from best practices and presenting implementable solutions to clients through management presentations, large-scale quantitative initiatives, and cross-functional workshops, and collaborating with revenue teams to develop and manage client relationships through sales support and client engagement. 

Abdul-Malek held the position of Vice President, Associate for the investment banking (Merrill Advisory Group, Harpeth Capital) in 2005 – 2006 & 2009.  As the vice president associate he advised on and executed sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions and capital raising activities, developing complex operational and financial models for valuation analyses in mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and PIPE transactions, as well as performing financial and legal due diligence, drafting pitch books and offering memoranda for presentations to prospective clients, acquirers, investors, and corporate boards. 

Andre Moeller – Energy and Resource Management

An engineer with a background in renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency, Moeller has over 10 years of experience working as a consultant for government and industry and as a lecturer on energy efficiency and the environment.  Specializing in energy efficiency technologies, with strong project management skills, Moeller has a wealth of experience in Afghanistan with GIZ, in Nigeria with Ecowatt Nigeria, and in his home country of Germany with Ecoclimate and Cologne University of Applied Sciences. 

ATR engaged Moeller’s services for an evaluation study of Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD) work to connect the city of Mahmoud-e-Raqi of Kapisa province to the electricity network.  The project aimed to connect private households, businesses, mosques, and other public facilities to the electricity grid which covers the Central region of Afghanistan.  Moeller was instrumental in the evaluation as he brought his expertise in the energy sector to plan and undertake an extensive desk review, lead of qualitative and quantitative tool design, and providing a peer review of the final evaluation report. 

Moeller holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, as we well as a Master of Science, Technology and Resources Management from Cologne University of Applied Sciences. 

Lillian Dang – Rule of Law

Ms. Lillian Dang is a rule of law, governance, and security sector reform specialist.  Dang has extensive field-based research and program management experience in conflict-affected and post-conflict countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mindanao (Philippines) and Timor-Leste. 

Recently Dang worked for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Kabul, managing the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a rule of law promotion program in Afghanistan focusing on women’s access to justice, land conflict, constitutional analysis, traditional dispute resolution, public legal awareness and Islamic law. 

Dang is currently based in Washington DC as an independent legal consultant designing and advising on justice, security, governance and CVE projects, and preparing legal and policy research. 

Dang holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a Master of Laws in International Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.  Dang is an attorney admitted to practice in Australia. 

Hadley Rose – Rule of Law

Hadley Rose is an international legal consultant with experience working in multiple countries and contexts, including Afghanistan where she was Chair of the Law Department at the American University of Afghanistan.  She has direct experience working on behalf of victims in domestic and international criminal justice systems.  She has also drafted laws and built capacity in legislative drafting and legal analysis in multiple country contexts.  Rose has strong legal and social sciences research and writing skills, which she utilizes to inform programming, policy, and advocacy efforts.  She puts many of these skills to use as a legal trainer, utilizing a practical skills approach to all training work, and is an expert in developing and integrating tailored case studies to teach legal skills. 

Rose holds a Masters of Law from Yale Law School, a Juris Doctorate (Law) from Willamette University College of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania State University. 

Rose is a capacity-builder, teacher, trainer, and mentor, highly skilled at working in multi-lingual and cross-cultural environments, and specializing in legal and empirical research and legal program evaluation. 

Delwar Hussain – Public Health Nutritionist

Mr. Delwar Hussain has over 13 years of experience in the public health sector working in hostile environments including Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan and Afghanistan.  Hussain has worked for key players in the public health space including World Health Organization, World Bank, Medecins Sans Frontieres, International Rescue Committee, and the Malaria Consortium.  As part of his role with Malaria Consortium in South Sudan, Hussain was responsible for supporting the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to monitor, evaluate, design surveillance mechanisms, and research the MOH’s Malaria Control Program and he supported Government of Union of Myanmar on the side of WHO and acted as co-health lead for Transitional Government of Somalia. 

Most recently, Hussain has been working with Conseil Santé as a Public Health Nutritionist, leading teams of professionals in the area of public health nutrition by collaborating with public institutions including Kabul Medical University and Ghazanfar Institute of Health Sciences, to review and update their nutrition curriculum, train lectures and help create a post graduate diploma in Kabul Medical University and Ghazanfar Institute of Health Sciences.