Suggestions
Matthew Pritchard
Technical Director at Ecorys UK
Matthew Pritchard is an experienced monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialist and team leader with 30 years of development expertise.1 He currently serves as the Technical Director at Ecorys UK, a position he has held since February 2019.1
Professional Background
Throughout his career, Mr. Pritchard has gained extensive experience in various sectors, including:
- Education
- Social protection
- Capacity development
- Poverty reduction
- Livelihoods
- Governance
- Agriculture1
Responsibilities at Ecorys UK
As Technical Director, Matthew Pritchard's primary responsibilities include:
- Providing technical delivery of monitoring and evaluation services
- Project management
- Business development
- Capacity building1
He has led evaluations of various programs, including the PLANE education program in Nigeria funded by FCDO, where he provided strategic direction, oversight, and quality assurance.1
Previous Experience
Before joining Ecorys UK, Matthew Pritchard held several notable positions:
- Managing Consultant at Maxwell Stamp (August 2016 - January 2019)
- Principal Consultant at Mat Pritchard Consulting (July 2016 - January 2019)
- Development Management, M&E and Technical Writing Consultant at Mat Pritchard Consulting (November 2011 - June 2013)1
Expertise and Skills
Matthew Pritchard is known for his expertise in:
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Project design and management
- Development communications2
He has consistently focused on telling the stories of the people and projects he's worked on, aiming to make them engaging, interesting, and genuinely insightful.1
Highlights
A really interesting set of articles from the World Bank here on gender mainstreaming in the World Bank, why it matters, and what more needs to be done.
The TLDR: Women’s representation in the World Bank leads to more effective gender mainstreaming in projects, enhancing development outcomes. Projects led by women score higher on the Gender Mainstreaming Index, indicating deeper integration of gender-related activities. However, achieving gender equity requires additional cultural change to more fully support diversity and inclusion. And it also requires overcoming barriers in hiring, promotion, and creating a supportive work environment for women.
Really interesting article on the factors that have enabled women leaders to rise to greater power in some places - and of course, the factors holding them back elsewhere.
The good news: greater gender equality in power is possible. "Women political leaders emerge through a combination of historical and structural factors, along with proximate facilitating conditions. ...establishing an appropriate environment provides a platform for widespread improvements in women’s political representation."
But a sobering note: "... increasing women’s political leadership is not sufficient to spur gender equality more broadly... political leaders must intentionally translate structural and proximate changes into opportunities for women’s empowerment."
Still more to do. But change is possible - because it's happened, and is continuing to happen.
