Associate Consultants

Aguaconsult is often tasked to provide teams of consultants or specialised inputs for particular pieces of work. For this purpose the company has developed long-standing relations with a network of experts in different fields, upon which it calls for projects at any given time. The following list of profiles provides an indication of the type of Associate Consultants which Aguaconsult is able to field and manage to support the needs of clients.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion

Richard Carter, Water Sector Consultant, Sub-Saharan Africa
Richard Carter has worked for more than 30 years on the natural science, social science and engineering of water development and management, focusing especially on the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He undertook his undergraduate, Master's and PhD studies respectively at Cambridge, Southampton and Cranfield Universities. After training as a geologist, he took a Master's degree in irrigation and water resources engineering, and later completed a PhD in water policy and management related to semi-arid west Africa. Richard is driven by a passion to contribute to poverty alleviation in low-income countries and communities. He pursues this goal through long-term partnerships with public sector, private sector and non-Governmental organisations in developing countries. He joined Cranfield University at Silsoe in 1981 after several years working for consulting companies in UK and overseas. He was appointed Professor of International Water Development at Cranfield University in 2002. Richard has worked in Algeria, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Honduras, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malawi, Mali, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire and Zimbabwe. He has published about 100 papers, articles and reports relating to his work. In 2006 he established Richard Carter & Associates Ltd, to extend and deepen partnerships for rural development in low-income developing countries.

Jeremy Colin, Water and Environmental Health
Jeremy Colin has a professional background in urban environmental health and worked in local government in the UK before specialising in water supply and sanitation for developing countries. Following full-time contracts in Pakistan (as Director of an NGO specialising in sanitation) and Zambia (as WaterAid's adviser to a water supply, sanitation and hygiene programme with a strong capacity building component) he became an independent consultant in 1998. He has undertaken a wide range of assignments for multilateral, bilateral, private sector and NGO clients, particularly in the areas of policy and strategy development, sector reform, institutional strengthening, collaborative planning processes, operational research and documentation.

Erica Ortiz Moreno, Water and Sanitation Sector Specialist
Erica Ortiz Moreno is a civil engineer with experience in the formulation and assessment of infrastructure projects, specifically in the water and sanitation sector. She has considerable experience in the evaluation of private sector companies participating in the provision of water and sewerage services at national level. Ms. Ortiz Moreno worked with the Water and Sanitation Division of the Colombian central government's Department of National Planning for four years and has recently completed a MSc. in Environment, Science and Society at the University of Essex, UK. Her special area of interest is the evaluation of environmental regulation on the water and sewerage sector, and in particular the application of economic instruments such as environmental taxation.

Susan Watts, Water and Sanitation Consultant
Susan Watts has a background in development studies, learning and teaching methods (including writing and editing learning materials) and knowledge management primarily in the Higher Education sector both in the UK and West Africa. Since completing her MSc in Water Management at Cranfield University in 2004 and specialising in Community Water Supply, she has worked as an independent consultant. Her particular areas of interest are in school and rural water supply and sanitation provision, hygiene education, monitoring and evaluation and post-construction support. She has recently worked in the Gambia and Uganda.

Disaster Risk Reduction

Alfie Cires Alonso, Disaster Management Expert
Alfie Cires Alonso has a Master's Degree in Business Administration with over seven years professional experience and working knowledge of humanitarian organisations and the NGO sector in several countries in South Asia, North Africa and Central America. Mr. Cires has direct operational experience leading teams in disaster response and management and has worked in complex emergency situations. He is also experienced in the development of co-ordination mechanisms with national government agencies, contingency planning, the design of disaster preparedness programmes at national and local levels and leading teams in post disaster environments. Mr. Cires has extensive working experience in India and Sri Lanka as well as in north Africa and central America; Mr. Cires is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in both oral and written English.

Jane Barham, Humanitarian Relief Specialist
Jane Barham holds a Master's Degree in International Studies and Diplomacy specialising in International Law and International Relations, with 18 years overseas experience in a wide range of technical and managerial capacities with relief and development agencies. These include the UK Government (DFID), European Union (ECHO), UN (UNOPS, UNICEF, UNESCO PEER) and INGOs (Oxfam, IRC, Christian Aid). She is skilled in understanding and assessing political and security dynamics in areas of conflict, as well as having a demonstrated ability to manage and design appropriate responses for natural disasters. This has included both host Government and community based disaster preparedness plans. She has undertaken assessments, reviews as well as real time evaluations, including providing substantial inputs on a range of assignments for Aguaconsult, for clients including ECHO and UNDP/BCPR. She has worked in many parts of Africa, Middle East, Far East, as well as South and Central America, and has field experience in DR Congo, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Turkey, and Northern Iraq.

Tony Conlay, Humanitarian Affairs Expert
Tony Conlay is a Chartered Civil Engineer with twelve years experience in disaster management and humanitarian assistance. Mr. Conlay has led a number of evaluation missions of humanitarian aid programmes and has direct experience of leading response teams in both post disaster environments and complex emergencies. In addition he has experience in the development of co-ordination mechanisms, contingency planning and disaster preparedness programmes at national and local levels. Mr. Conlay has significant long-term field experience of project management in southern and west Africa and the middle east.

Jan Gelfand, Community Development Specialist
Jan Gelfand has a Master of Science in Rural Sociology and has taught community development and rural sociology at the University of Alberta in Canada. He has an extensive background in community development, disaster management, programme management and evaluation, as well as in training. He has carried out disaster management and risk reduction evaluation and review exercises throughout the world, mostly as a team leader. He has extensive working experience with the Red Cross-Red Crescent movement, managing a range of programmes largely in Central and South America but with experience in Africa, India and the Middle East. In addition to extensive experience of working with the Red Cross-Red Crescent, Mr. Gelfand has working experience with UN OCHA, the UK government's Department for International Development, the Canadian International Development Agency and various international NGOs; he is an active member of OCHA's United National Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team. Mr. Gelfand has lived for over 15 years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish. He has field experience in Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Comoros Islands, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Kenya, India, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Anissa Toscano, Independent Consultant on Disaster Response and Risk Reduction
Anissa Toscano holds a Master of Arts in International Boundary Studies, as well as an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance. She has over 12 years experience in humanitarian and development contexts with in-depth experience in both natural disasters and complex emergencies. An experienced disaster response practitioner, Ms. Toscano has developed proven skills in assessment, intervention strategies as well as evaluation of crisis response and disaster risk reduction approaches. She has worked with Aguaconsult on a number of assignments, including leading a team conducting an in-depth study into global disaster/conflict interfaces. In her capacity as Head of Advisory Group, UK Department for International Development Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department Operations Team, she not only provided field team leadership for major UK disaster responses but also advised on key operational and humanitarian policy issues for DFID CHASE. This included advisory oversight of the DFID-funded Federation Disaster Risk Reduction Programme in South Asia and East Africa. Throughout her career, Ms. Toscano has worked with and alongside a range of organisations including donors, UN agencies, NGOs, private sector companies and the International Movement of the Red Cross.

Ian Wilderspin, Disaster Risk Reduction expert
Ian Wilderspin holds a PhD and is an expert in disaster risk reduction and disaster management, with twenty years experience of humanitarian work and emergency response, including community-based disaster risk management. Ian has worked for a broad range of agencies in the field of disaster response and management, including the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the UNDP, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), the UK government and a range of international NGOs. He led a team for Aguaconsult’s evaluation of ECHO’s DRR Mainstreaming, managed the evaluation of DIPECHO programmes in South East Asia and has extensive field experience of humanitarian response in many countries with a special focus on South and South East Asia.

Conflict & Security

Charlotte Scawen, Conflict Risk Reduction Specialist
Charlotte Scawen holds a Master's degree in Conflict, Development and Security Studies and has over seven years substantive experience in the fields of conflict, security, governance and humanitarian assistance. Her work with Aguaconsult includes the provision of conflict expertise on a study on global disaster/conflict interfaces, and in addition to this she has recently worked as a Senior Relief and Development Officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), where she had responsibility for coordinating UN programme activity including disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants, humanitarian assistance and local governance reform in five provinces. Prior to this, Ms. Scawen worked at the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on a range of conflict policy issues for over four years, latterly as an Assistant Conflict Advisor. She was the DFID project manager for a large research programme which explored the linkages between armed violence and poverty. She also managed DFID support to UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery for two years, and was a member of a joint evaluation team which reviewed UNDP's disaster recovery programme in Gujarat, India. Ms. Scawen speaks French. She has field experience in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Namibia, Afghanistan and India.

Rural Development

Paul Schoen, Rural Development Specialist and Agricultural Economist
Paul Schoen is an Agricultural Economist with over 16 years of international experience in development projects. After undertaking three university degrees (Hull University, LSE and Wye College, UK) he undertook various long and short term assignments in PNG, Bangladesh as well other parts of Asia (including India, Pakistan, Vietnam), Africa (including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana), Latin America and the Caribbean and CIS States (including Moldova, Georgia, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Romania). He is experienced in cost-benefit analysis, M&E, economic and financial analysis, monitoring and evaluation, project identification, project-preparation, and appraisal. Although mainly natural resource based, he has completed missions that have included business development planning, environmental economics, irrigation and water economics, agricultural economics and small farm business development. Other sectoral areas include food security, small island developing states and insularity as well as institutional review, strengthening and capacity building. Missions have been undertaken for the EC, Tacis, Phare, UNDP, DFID, IFC, Dutch Aid-Senter, IFAD, FAO and Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

Muhammad Taher, Rural Development Specialist
Muhammad Taher has a background in rural development, including a focus on livelihoods, as well as significant experience in disaster mitigation and prevention programmes. Following his studies for an MA in Development Studies with specialisation in Agricultural and Rural Development at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, he went on to serve as country director for the Intermediate Technology Development Group in Bangladesh. He then spent two and half years as a programme officer with the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation in Dhaka, and for the last five years has worked as a consultant in Bangladesh and other countries in South Asia.

Economics

Suha Satana, Economist and Financial Analyst
Suha Satana is an economist specialising in project, program and sector evaluation, economic-financial-fiscal analysis and costing of donor funded projects, emphasising overall project and program management including: natural disaster risk and hazard management; water sector management; irrigation; environment; cadastre and land registration; technology; credit; multi-sectoral project design; preparation of business and operational plans; M/E system design and implementation; enterprise and private sector development, and general policy and strategy development. A Turkish national, Mr. Satana has 34 years of professional experience with 23 years of general development experience in these disciplines in developing countries. He has field experience in Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, DRCongo, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mali, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Niger, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Turkey, as well as ten years of academic experience teaching economics, management science, and statistics in Turkey and the U.S.A. Mr. Satana is a native Turkish speaker, and is fluent in both oral and written French and English.