Current projects and initiatives

Powered by the People (with PartnersGlobal)

Funded by USAID and Humanity United, Powered by the People is designed to strengthen the agency, resiliency, and efficacy of activists advancing human rights, social justice, democracy, and inclusive development worldwide. Wonderlight role: Evidence-based reflection, evaluation, and learning design and launch.

Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (with World Wildlife Fund)

Targeting Natural Resource Corruption (TNRC) is a USAID-funded project to improve biodiversity outcomes by equipping practitioners to address the threats posed by corruption to wildlife, fisheries, and forests. It does this through three Strategic Approaches - building knowledge, communicating for change, and applying knowledge and testing hypotheses. Wonderlight role: Monitoring, Reporting, and Learning consultant.

Media Viability Accelerator (with Internews)

Funded by USAID and led by Internews, the Media Viability Accelerator is designed to help independent media become more financially sustainable by accessing solutions and market insights to inform effective business strategies. Wonderlight role: Design MEL plan.

Schools Action Learning Exchange (as R4D Senior Fellow)

Funded by the Jacobs Foundation, the School Action Learning Exchange (SALEX) is a learning community of organizations that support schools, school leaders, and teachers by aggregating and sharing knowledge, building capacity, and implementing promising practices in schools. Its diverse set of founding members, who work across six continents, include national NGOs, multilateral institutions, and organizations supporting teacher and school leader capacity, among others. Wonderlight role: Support the backbone functioning of the network.

Fiscal Governance Indicators project (as R4D Senior Fellow)

Working closely with leading organizations and donors and leveraging its governance experience and monitoring and evaluation expertise, R4D (supported by Open Society Foundations) is endeavoring to design new fiscal governance indicators focused on measuring the performance of organizational activities and programs. Developing and disseminating a suite of accessible indicators that organizations can use to measure the outcomes of their work has the potential to improve assessment and learning and to enable greater collective impact in the field. Wonderlight role: Project lead.

Select past projects and initiatives

Strengthening Mixed Health Systems (R4D, Merck for Mothers)

Illuminating New Solutions and Programmatic Innovations for Resilient Spaces (INSPIRES) project (R4D, Internews, USAID)

Using Participatory Approaches for Health Systems Strengthening (Global Integrity, Gates Foundation)

Transparency for Development (R4D, Harvard University, Hewlett Foundation, Gates Foundation, FCDO, TAI Collaborative)

MEL Toolkit for Grantmakers and Grantees (Open Society Foundation, Better Evaluation)

African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions (ACS) Outcome Harvesting (R4D, USAID)

Strengthening Pandemic Governance (TAI Collaborative)

Earth Journalism Network “Strengthening Reporters, Strengthening Reporting” (Internews)

Trainings and strategic support on MEL and Theories of Change facilitated for: Natural Resource Governance Institute (2021), Internews (2021-22), International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (2022-23), International Institute for Sustainable Development (2023).

Additional clients include: Geneva Global, Apparel Impact Institute, International Senior Lawyers Project.

Papers, Publications, and Products

• “Flexible and Rapid Response Funding: an analysis of helping and hindering factors,” INSPIRES Learning Brief, 2023 (with R. Flam). [Additional learning briefs from INSPIRES can be accessed here.]

• “Strengthening reporters, strengthening reporting,” Earth Journalism Network, 2023.

• “Setting new standards for better MEL: lessons for grantees and funders,” Learning Brief, 2022 (with A. Azevedo, H. Caddick, and M. Colnar).

• “Strengthening Pandemic Governance: integrating transparency, accountability, and participation lessons into future pandemic preparedness and response,” Transparency and Accountability Initiative, 2022 (with M Jarvis).

• “ACS Project Outcome Harvesting Evaluation Report,” R4D Working Paper, 2022.

• “Supporting public-private engagement in Kakamega County (Kenya) - Case Study,” Results for Development Working Paper, 2021 (with N. Gitonga, C. Lanzara, K. Mangam, L. Marani, W. Obita, and C. Thomas)

• “Secondary case review of public-private engagements in health - crosscutting analysis,” Results for Development Working Paper, 2021 (with E. Adams, D. Gutierrez, and C. Lanzara)

• “Transparency for Development - Results and Implications,” Final Report, 2021 (with J. Arkedis, J. Creighton, A. Dixit, A. Fung, S. Kosack, and D. Levy).

• “Strengthening Mixed Health Systems for Maternal Health: Evidence Review,” Results for Development Working Paper, 2020 (with E. Adams, C. Lanzara, K. Mangam, and C. Thomas)

• “Measuring Governance, Advocacy and Power: A Database of Existing Indicators, Tools and Indices,” Database and Guidance Note, 2020 (with C. Poirrier).

• “Insights from Transparency and Accountability Action Plans in Indonesia and Tanzania,” Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center Occasional Paper, 2020 (with J. Arkedis, J. Creighton, A. Dixit, A. Fung, S. Kosack, and D. Levy).

• “Can Transparency and Accountability Programs Improve Health?” Working Paper (forthcoming for publication in World Development), 2019 (with J. Arkedis, J. Creighton, A. Dixit, A. Fung, S. Kosack, and D. Levy).

• “Encouraging Participation.” Working Paper (finalizing for submission for publication), 2018 (with S. Kosack, G. Bridgeman, J. Creighton, and A. Fung).

• “An Approach to Small-Scale Mixed Methods Experimentation.” Harvard Kennedy School working paper, 2017 (with S. Kosack and J. Creighton)

• “Citizen Voices, Community Solutions: Designing Better Transparency and Accountability Approaches to Improve Health.” Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center Occasional Paper, 2017 (authored as part of the Transparency for Development Team).

• “Priceless? A New Framework for Estimating the Cost of Open Government Reforms.” Results for Development and World Bank Working Paper, 2017 (Editor with N. Heller, Authors P. Vissapragada & N. Joswiak).

• “Linking Think Tank Performance, Decision, and Context.”  Results for Development Working Paper, 2014 (with E. Brown, A. Knox, A. Fabrizio, M. Gugerty, & S. Kosack)

• “Where are our Budgets?  Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys as Tools for Engaging with Civil Society,” Health Finance and Governance Project, Abt Associates Inc., 2013.

• Lives in the Balance: Improving Accountability for Public Spending in Developing Nations (with C. Griffin, D. de Ferranti, C. Bun, J. Jacinto, & G. Ramshaw), Brookings Press (2010)

• From the Ground Up (with S. Kosack & C.Griffin), Brookings Press (2010)

• “Using PETS to Monitor Projects and Small-Scale Programs.”  Human Development Group.  World Bank, 2010 (with M. Koziol)

Select Recent Presentations

• “Developing Guidance for Conducting Process Monitoring” (with A. Bailey, Accountability Research Center), World Health Organization Community of Practice on Measuring Social Accountability and Health Outcomes (virtual due to COVID-19, November 2020)

• “Study Designs for Social Accountability” (Community of Practice event converted to virtual session due to COVID-19, led by the World Health Organization – April 2020)

• “When, Where, and How Does Transparency and Accountability Improve Health? Evidence from a Mixed-Method Multi-Country Impact Evaluation” (with co-presenters from Harvard Kennedy School, University of Washington), Global Transparency Research Conference (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – June 2019)

• “Pitfalls and Bright Spots: Crowdsourcing and Validating Why Social Accountability Designs Succeed and Fail” (with co-presenters from World Vision/Wahana Visi Indonesia), Open Government Partnership Global Summit (Ottawa, Canada – May 2019)

• “Do This, Not That: Surfacing Lessons for Social Accountability Design from Evaluations that show no health impacts,” CORE Group Global Health Practitioner Conference (Washington, DC – May 2019)

• Launch of INSPIRES Initiative, International Civil Society Week (Belgrade, Serbia – April 2019)

• “When, where, and how does social accountability improve health? Evidence from a mixed-method multi-country impact evaluation,” Africa Health Agenda International Conference (Kigali, Rwanda – March 2019)

• “When, where, and how does social accountability improve health? Evidence from a mixed-method multi-country impact evaluation,” American Evaluation Association Conference (Cleveland, Ohio – November 2018)