Margot Szamier has worked for over 20 years as a development practitioner in social research and evaluation, gender analysis and planning, institutional strengthening, and advocacy. Her work has a strong focus on women and girls’ rights, particularly in post-conflict and least developed country contexts.

Margot’s technical skills are grounded in over a decade living in Melanesia, and in her deep engagement with rural and urban communities throughout the Pacific, Asia and in North America. She has worked extensively with national and local governments, community and civil society organizations, farmers, civil servants, market vendors, sex workers, activists, people living with HIV, ex-combatants, and refugees and migrants. She currently resides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Margot is experienced in designing, leading and supporting rigorous mixed method program evaluations that integrate insights from a variety of data sources, methods and interpretations to build a deep picture and evidence base for program and strategy development and leadership decision-making. She specializes in a range of best practice qualitative methods, including narrative inquiry, photo documentation, and data triangulation, and has used these in multiple country contexts.

In 2013–14, Margot was a principal evaluator for a regional evaluation of the Transparency International Pacific Institutional and Network Strengthening Program, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2014, she also provided technical support on gender and monitoring and evaluation to the UN Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption Project, a joint initiative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Development Programme.

Margot holds a Bachelor of Political Science from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, and a Master of International and Intercultural Management from the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont.