Projects, clients and testimonials

I have over 25 years experience working in programme implementation, research and evaluation in the UK, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

My recent projects and clients in the UK include:

  • A qualitative study of food poverty in Oxford for Good Food Oxford. The evidence is being used to shape policy and programmes by Oxford City and County Councils, the NHS Commissioning Group, and Barton Healthy New Town
  • Evaluation of the Sustain-funded Oxford Food Access Alliance for Good Food Oxford
  • Evaluation for Cordwainers Grow of two projects funded by Hackney Council to increase food advertising literacy among young people in Hackney. The first report has received a lot of interest from universities and councils interested in developing similar approaches. See the second report here.
  • Lead researcher on Healthwatch Oxfordshire-funded Rose Hill Primary School Healthy Eating consultation
  • Consultations and refresh of Rape Crisis England and Wales’ service user outcomes framework and MEL tools and toolkit
  • Working with the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre (OSARCC) to set up an organisation-wide MEL system, including theory of change, MEL Plan and data collection tools, and build staff capacity in MEL
  • MEL Plan and tools for evaluation of the Big Lottery-funded Support, Empower, Educate (SEE) project for girls and young women survivors of sexual violence
  • Annual evaluation 2018-19 for Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre
  • Formative and summative evaluation of Solace domestic violence charity Project Mia for survivors with complex needs, with the New Economics Foundation
  • Supporting Kent’s domestic violence charity Rising Sun to develop a theory of change and MEL system for a Big Lottery funded project; summative end of project evaluation of Project Liberty
  • Developing a theory of change and setting up a MEL system for the Abbey Physic Garden in Faversham
  • Regular guest lecturer on Oxford Brookes University MsC Applied Human Nutrition
  • A workshop on theory of change and impact evaluation at Project Dirt’s 2017 Offline Festival.

Prjoect Dirt offline festival 2017

This was the venue for Project Dirt’s 2017 Offline Festival where I gave a workshop on evaluation with my colleague Steve Matthews.

My international clients include: the Department for International Development (DFID), the World Health Organisation (WHO), UN Women, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Kellogg Foundation, and various national governments. Recent projects include:

  • Team leader on Value for Money assessments of five DFID-funded projects in Africa and the Middle East, using evaluation rubrics and mixed methods approaches
  • Setting up a MEL system for Plan Sierra, a large rural development NGO in the Dominican Republic
  • Formative evaluation of the MUVA female economic empowerment programme in Mozambique
  • Qualitative evaluator on the DFID- and USAID-funded Global Learning for Adaptive Management programme (GLAM)
  • Mid-term evaluation of the Government of Rwanda’s Ubudehe micro-finance programme
  • Final integrated evaluation report of the DFID-funded WINNN (Working to Improve Nutrition in northern Nigeria) programme, synthesising findings from operations research, impact evaluation and economic evaluation
  • Gender advisor on the DFID-funded Operations Research and Impact Evaluation for nutrition in Northern Nigeria programme
  • Co-leader, capacity strengthening in nutrition research for medical researchers in Northern Nigeria universities
  • Literature review for DFID- and Wellcome Trust-funded Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) programme
  • Literature review on  intra-household resource allocation for UN Women’s 2018/2019 Progress of the Women’s World report
  • Assessment of the impact, legacy and policy lessons of Kellogg Foundation programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean 1986-2010.

If you think I can be of help in your work please do get in touch for an informal chat.

Here are some testimonials to the high quality of my work:

“We were very lucky to find Frances. I was impressed at how much time Frances spent on finding out about the project, how we would do it, and what we wanted to achieve. She walked us through the process of evaluation and consulted us at every stage. She was precise and rigorous and she delivered her evaluation well within time! The evaluation has been held up by Hackney Council as a model of good practice and it has been an important enhancement to our own work and reputation” (Kate Poland, Co-Director, Cordwainers Grow).

“Cordwainers Grow have submitted a very thorough and interesting independent evaluation that captures the depth of learning and summarises potential impacts. Their project has so far gained interest from Public Health England and the Greater London Authority….” (Thomas Dunn, Hackney Council).

“I’ve been working with Frances since 2011, first as a colleague and then as an external consultant. Frances is a great team player, provides excellent analysis, and delivers reliably on time” (Sabine Garbarino, Senior Manager, Adam Smith International).

“I have known Frances since 2011……I have found her to be a hardworking expert, results oriented, and with great attention to details. Frances is a technically sound qualitative researcher and trainer, who makes working with her fun with her good sense of humour and big laugh” (Dr. Vincent Ahonsi, National Team Leader, Operations Research and Impact Evaluation (ORIE) project, Nigeria).