Consulting
Following her long career at the World Bank, Ellen has continued to serve as a senior
advisor and consultant to governments, multilateral and bilateral donor agencies,
foundations, and non-governmental organizations. Her advisory and consulting work
builds on her experience and expertise in the following three areas:
Leadership and Strategy Development
Ellen coaches leaders and facilitates teams to analyze systems and develop strategy amid uncertainty. She was among the first Country Directors at the World Bank to lead systematic country diagnostics to underpin multi-year foreign aid strategies. She led a strategic shift in programming in Myanmar to focus on social inclusion in conflict zones following the Rohingya crisis. Prior to that, she led a strategic shift in programming in Bangladesh to strengthen good governance and fight corruption. As a big-picture thinker, Ellen uses coaching tools and models to help leaders and teams elevate their vision, evaluate risks, and define flexible strategies to get results.
Aid Effectiveness and Results-based Evaluation
Ellen was the founder and leader of the World Bank’s Results Secretariat and the African Development Bank’s Department of Quality Assurance and Results. She co-chaired the DAC’s Joint Venture on Managing for Development Results. Today, she continues to consult on managing, monitoring and evaluating for better development outcomes. She helped produce the Independent Evaluation Group’s (IEG) annual review of the World Bank’s results and performance in 2022. She also conducted a mid-term evaluation for the Gates Foundation of a multi-donor trust fund to strengthen agricultural data systems. She served as peer reviewer for IEG evaluations, including Learning in World Bank Lending (June 2024) and The World Bank Group Outcome Orientation at the Country Level (July 2020).
Social Inclusion and Human Capital Development
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ellen led teams focused on first-generation reform of social systems—health, education and social protection—in Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. More recently, her memoir, Damned If You Do: Foreign Aid and My Struggle to Do Right in Myanmar, underscores her commitment to putting social inclusion at the center of poverty reduction and aid programming. She lectures regularly on social inclusion in aid programs for students of international development. Most recently, she collaborated with Ukrainian social scientists on a strategy to make social inclusion a foundation for the recovery of Ukraine.