I am the principal consultant at Marcus Catsam Consulting LLC. In a career spanning more than 20 years, I have designed and managed complex, multi-million-dollar development and emergency programs as a senior manager; evaluated donor-funded investments valued at over a collective $650M; designed dozens of strategies and written proposals resulting in over $500M in donor funding; and designed operational Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) frameworks and methodologies to measure the effects of donor investments addressing some of the world’s most complex challenges. I have served as a senior advisor for INGOs, private sector firms and foundations and coordinated closely with local and national governments, donor agencies, civil society and faith-based actors. I have trained dozens of local development professionals, civil society leaders and university students and authored over two dozen evaluation reports, white papers and technical guidance documents.
VALUES: I believe that effective humanitarian and development assistance can measurably improve lives. I think current assistance approaches often fall short by placing bureaucratic requirements over technical excellence. As a result, we fail to prioritize and measure the “right” things, making it impossible to identify appropriate lessons learned and drive purposeful improvement. I believe the interests and needs of aid recipients and communities should be the centerpiece, compass and driving force in the sector. I am committed to:
- Purpose-driven work that prioritizes people and communities.
- Generation and use of best-fit data to drive people-centered strategy design and thoughtful, continuous adaptation.
- Technical excellence.
- Clarity and integrity in communications.
- Collaboration based on mutual respect and clearly defined roles and expectations.
