MSc: Environmental Change and Management, University of Oxford (distinction) (2013), BA Social and Political Sciences with a specialism in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge (2001)

Kirsty Wilson has nearly fifteen years of progressively senior experience in design, delivery and monitoring and evaluation of inclusive rural development programmes. She is an experienced team leader and project director with a keen interest in climate resilience, food security and social protection, and smallholder agriculture.

Kirsty is passionate about ensuring public investment in international development gets to where it is needed in an effective and efficient way. She has held several long-term evaluation Team Leader roles and has provided a range of technical and research inputs on climate and agricultural policy. Prior to joining LTS, she led the Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance in Ethiopia, worked as a technical advisor to the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and was Head of Policy at Oxfam GB Ethiopia. She worked with researchers and practitioners to design approaches to building adaptive capacity at community level and worked to integrate these into national policy and large-scale Government programmes, including the national social protection programme.

At LTS, she has worked on evaluation and investment planning for the UK Government (Departments for International Development and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), Norad, the World Bank as well as impact investors and NGOs. Kirsty remains passionate about finding cost-effective approaches to supporting smallholder farmers to manage risk and grow their livelihoods. In 2011, she was co-editor of a book Small Farmers, Big Change which presented case studies on achieving change at scale through public investment in the smallholder sector. She has continued to work on the design and evaluation of a number of market-based agricultural programmes, with a particular focus on climate smart approaches.

Kirsty has a deep knowledge of donor practices and requirements, a unique range of long-term overseas work experience, qualitative and quantitative research skills, and a demonstrated record of strategic leadership. She has worked in Cameroon, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia as well as on several global and African regional programmes.