Laura Hughston

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT LAURA HUGHSTON

I am a collaborative leader with expertise in global development and humanitarian assistance, monitoring and evaluation and grant writing, with a strong focus on gender equality, genuine partnerships and co-creation.With experience spanning several international organizations, I have worked with national and global organisations, across over 20 countries, including fragile and nexus settings. I specialise helping organisations focus their efforts and take measurable strides towards their goals. I guide teams to explore complex systems, levers for change, ask deeper questions and develop metrics and processes to understand their contributions to wider system change, including helping nascent organisations or small grass-groups initiatives understand and capture their impact.Gifted storyteller, I use data to create compelling narratives, weaving evidence into nuanced accounts to compel to action and make technical content accessible.I bring a range of perspectives: that of a grant receiver and grant giver, an independent evaluator and a board member.I am an established thought-leader on accountability and using feedback to boost programme effectiveness, and a pioneer developer of child-centred and child-led M&E. I was the very first to ideate and deliver three evaluations entirely led by children in Cambodia, Zimbabwe and Kenya; demonstrating that, with the right facilitation, children as young as 10, are able to formulate questions, collect and analyse data of a multisectoral programme and deliver a rich and nuanced evaluation. I ground my work with humility, curiosity and principled leadership. I hold my expertise and my convictions with an open hand, always ready to learn and to grow through thoughtful interactions and genuine curiosity.