Team of Specialists
Manager
John Wilkinson is a Social Specialist of 30 years’ experience who works in infrastructure and poverty research. He has undertaken M&E assignments for ADB, the WB, and UNICEF, having worked as an adviser to the Government of Thailand on development program monitoring and carried out evaluations of rural infrastructure and poverty alleviation programs in various countries.
In the Lao PDR he has been involved in Social Research and Surveys for road and hydropower programs (World Bank), Social Protection Programs, Institutional and Policy Development, and livelihood restoration and livelihoods for the poor with both DFAT and industrial projects.
He has had substantial experience in WSS projects with both multilateral and bilateral donors. He is currently Social and Gender Specialist on two ADB projects in the Lao PDR.
He was Lead Evaluator for the 5-year evaluation of UNICEF’s WASH program in Cambodia (2011). He was Team Leader on WB/WSP Cambodia’s Appropriate Sanitation for Difficult Environments (2010).
Financial Services
Timo Hogenhout brings 25-years of experience in the financial services industry, the last ten years in Southeast Asia as an independent consultant. The focus of his work has been in retail financial services and financial inclusion, rural, micro and MSME-finance. Much of his work in Southeast Asia has involved doing studies, assessing, analysing and making policy recommendations, and presenting findings to government officials and other stakeholders, including private sector actors. The recent geographical focus of his work and life in Asia has been in Laos and Myanmar. As a result, Timo has built extensive networks in the financial-inclusion stakeholder communities of both countries, within government, private sector, the group of international financiers and development organizations, and has acquired a deep understanding of core issues related to access to finance of both countries. He is fluent in English and Dutch, has working-level proficiency in German and basic-level proficiency in Lao.
Development Specialist
Chris Wardle is development professional with extensive INGO managerial and technical experience. Over the past 18 years this has extended to management in multi-sector programming (livelihoods, food security, WaSH, health) in five countries in Asia, and five in Africa. Chris has been working in the Laos development sector since 2010, as a Program Coordinator in the south of Lao for five years, and latterly engaging in livelihood development through ‘graduation’ model implementation. Most recently his work has included evaluating economic empowerment programming, and reviewing the adaptation of the graduation model for the economic empowerment of people with disability. Chris has post-graduate qualifications in Development Management, Micro-finance, and Community Water Supply (M.Sc.).
Social Research Specialist
Samuel Waelty has wide experience in social research in Indonesia, India and Switzerland and as an evaluation consultant, most recently for UNDP and FAO. After teaching development studies including development research at two Swiss universities he joined the Swiss foreign service as Deputy Head of Evaluation of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). He later headed the Swiss Cooperation Office first in Kosovo and later in Vietnam. The programs had a strong focus on poverty reduction and sustainable development; market access and income generation for the rural poor; local governance and public administration reform; private sector/MSME development; forestry, agriculture and animal husbandry. Samuel has experience in the private sector and social enterprises: His regional focus is Eastern Europe and CIS, Asia, particularly Southeast Asia. He communicates fluently in English, French, German and Indonesian and he has basic knowledge of Albanian and Vietnamese.
MIS Specialist
Phouthon Siharat is a Management Information System (MIS) Specialist with in depth understanding of M&E and Communications. He has worked for projects funded by DFAT, IRI, UN Habitat, WB, ADB, and WFP to develop tools for data collection and monitoring. His technical experience in data collection ranges from development of paper based questionnaires to electronic forms using tablets. He is highly experienced using flat file databases (Excel, CSV, JSON, etc.) and relational databases (MS Access and MySQL) to develop desktop monitoring tools and browser based applications. In addition to his experience in data and monitoring he has been involved in developing terms of agreements with service providers to deliver cash transfers and implementation of payment process. His fluency in Lao and native language in English makes him effective in providing training and management of local staff.
Procurement and Project Management Specialist
William Willis, a consultant for 21 years, specializes in procurement and project management in the development sector, primarily in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar for the past 15 years. He has worked with UN agencies and the Asian Development Bank, aiding national government ministries and municipal agencies in poverty reduction projects. These initiatives focus on enhancing household incomes through micro and small enterprise development, spanning various sectors such as health, sanitation, gender, tourism, and municipal services. Notably, Willis supported the Solid Waste Management for Vientiane’s Poor Project from 2004 to 2007. He offers technical guidance, ensures adherence to ADB and national procurement policies, and provides training and support for procurement activities. Willis holds a Master’s degree in International Development from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Software Development and Data Engineering Specialist
Sylvain Dorey is a software development and data engineering specialist. He brings 10 years of experience working on various stages of software projects: from the early phase of architecture decision to the implementation and deployment. His expertise has been fed from software development and digital transformation projects for both western private companies as well as Lao government and NGO projects, bringing modern techniques to the specificities of Lao context. Past projects include land registration software (Ministry of Natural Resources), road and bridge maintenance monitoring platforms (Ministry of Transport), data intelligence and AI systems. He is a French citizen and studied computer science and applied mathematics.
Environmental Specialist
Nutrition Specialist
Anna Jolly graduated with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Canberra (Australia) in 2010. She has 10 years’ experience in clinical dietetic practice across hospital, community health and household settings (NSW Health, Medicare Local). Anna has had experience in tailoring nutrition assessment and interventions within indigenous health, aged care, disability, pediatric populations, as well as acute and sub-acute hospital settings. Anna has had been involved in the redesign of local health pathways in the area of dietetics to ensure compliance with health directives and consistency of delivery of services. She has been involved in accreditation processes, ensuring compliance of local dietetics services for the healthcare system. She has also had over 8 years experience supervising students from Australian Universities.
Health Sector
Specialist
Christi Lane-Barlow MSc is a Canadian Epidemiologist working on health and social research in Laos and Vietnam since 2009. During the pandemic, she worked for the Centers for Disease Control in the US, leading a team of epidemiologists for emergency response. She has extensive experience leading teams in Laos and Vietnam conducting large household and facility-based surveys and mixed methods assessment for UNFPA, and Clinton Health Access Initiative, and has conducted evaluations, baseline, midline and endline surveys for World Bank, Plan International, Care International, Save the Children, World Vision and other agencies working to improve health and nutrition in Laos. Her past roles with WHO involved reviewing hospital documentation in Laos and conducting studies in Vietnam on TB pricing and pharmacovigilance systems. As Country Representative for Burnet Research Institute in Laos, she provided hands-on exposure to the implementation of vaccine outreach programs and the management of childhood immunization.
Social Protection Specialist
Nayana Godamunne specializes in women’s livelihoods, social protection, and migration (development-induced, labour and conflict affected). She has worked on multi-lateral agency funded projects including those of the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, the International Labour Organisation and other UN organisations on issues of involuntary resettlement and labour migration. Her research orientation is mainly qualitative and she has collaborated with international think tanks and academia in designing research studies, conducting enumerator training, data collection and data analysis. Her communication skills range from facilitating discussions to presenting at international forums, and she produces various written outputs including journal articles and policy briefs. With extensive project implementation experience, Nayana works with government, civil society, and trade unions to design and execute large-scale development programs. She holds an MSc in Forced Migration from Green Templeton College, Oxford.