Speakers

Nicole is an Associate Partner at Instiglio, where she leads the Nairobi office and advises governments, funders, and service providers on the use of outcomes-based funding mechanisms to enhance the effectiveness of programs across various sectors, such as health, education, institutional strengthening, and poverty alleviation. For example, she led the design of a results-based financing scheme to improve the performance of the water and electricity utilities and the regulator in Sierra Leone. Nicole also supported the design of several performance-based intragovernmental transfer systems in Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Peru.

Before joining Instiglio, Nicole worked with Innovations for Poverty Action in Colombia, supporting project development and focusing on a randomized control trial that rigorously tests the impact of introducing flexible features in microfinance loans. Nicole also worked as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, where she focused on the execution of structured evaluations of the risk management system and trading processes of financial institutions.

Jonathan is Senior Legal Counsel with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) based in Washington, D.C. He has worked with various USAID portfolios, including Power Africa, the Private Sector Engagement Hub, and the Center for Education. He also served as the Acting Managing Director of the agency’s Innovation Division, which includes USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures team, which applies a tiered-evidence and results-based approach to federal grantmaking.

Prior to USAID, Jonathan was the Global Legal Director of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an international NGO known for starting the modern social entrepreneurship movement. Jonathan began his legal career at White & Case LLP in New York as a project finance attorney.

He is currently a Visiting Fellow of Practice with the Government Outcomes Lab and also, an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown Law, where he teaches a seminar on social enterprise, impact investing, and the law. He serves on the advisory board for the NYU Law’s Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, co-leads the D.C. Chapter of the Impact Investing Legal Working Group, and is a vice chair of the American Bar Association’s Public Contract Law Section’s Grant Law Committee.

Dorothy is the Country Engagement and Support Analyst with the Financing Alliance for Health (FAH). She has extensive experience in healthcare financing in Kenya for health programs that have made positive contributions in strengthening health systems and improving better access to quality health services in collaboration with both national ministry of health and county departments.

Since joining Living Goods in 2021, Sarah has served as the organizations project lead on a USAID results-based financing project. Throughout implementation, Sarah has worked closely with project partners and Living Goods project team to ensure successfully execute the project and promote learnings. Prior to joining Living Goods, Sarah was with Heifer international for six years. As Project Manager for the Hatching Hope Global Initiative, co-created by Cargill and Heifer, she oversaw projects in India, Mexico, and Kenya. Sarah has extensive resource mobilization experience with on bi- and multilaterals, corporations, and foundations. Sarah has worked with Global Giving, Creative Associates, and co-founded a non-profit based in Ghana, which worked to engage Ghanaian and American youth around global current events. Sarah holds a Master’s in Public Administration from American University, a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Arizona State University and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP

Mara is an Economist and Decision Analyst and holds degrees from Bocconi University in Milan and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research is motivated by a desire to improve decision making in government, with a special interest and extensive expertise in the field of healthcare. Mara is one of the lead developers of the STAR toolkit, a socio-technical approach sponsored by the Health Foundation to improve resource allocation in healthcare organisations.

Mara has worked extensively with managers of the English and the Italian National Health Systems. She has also consulted for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario (Canada), the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and the (then) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, NATO and the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Over twenty five years' experience in economic and financial services development. Since 2019 supporting USAID's Development Innovation Ventures program including managing grants in Africa and Asia. From 2014 until 2019 served as a Senior Advisor for Economic Growth at USAID/Kyrgyz Republic. Responsibilities included economic growth project management, budget and strategic planning.

Previously managed customer research initiatives for FINCA International and subsidiary units including large scale quantitative household surveys to measure social performance indicators, customer segmentation and other ad-hoc research initiatives. For two years managed FINCA's 17,000 client micro-credit deposit organisation in Tajikistan, introduced new loan tracking system, pilot savings program and concluded contracts with money transfer agencies. Previously in Azerbaijan worked on a 3 year USAID legal reform and institutional development project to improve access to financial services, including work with banks, MFIs and credit unions.

Served two years as a long-term advisor to CredAgro non-bank financial institution in Azerbaijan including strategic and business development and training to senior management. Prior to CredAgro served as Vice President for Turkmenistan with the Central Asian-American Enterprise Fund for three years overseeing both direct equity investments in joint ventures as well as providing micro, small and medium enterprise credit financing.