Dr Cathy Shutt

About

Cathy helps organisations test whether their theory of how change happens actually holds up, and what power and relationships have to do with it.

She’s an evaluation and learning specialist with more than 20 years’ experience of research and practice in international development, and a multi-disciplinary background spanning anthropology, political sociology, gender, accounting and economics.

On our projects she brings evaluation design and qualitative research. She runs evaluability assessments, designs formative evaluations and learning exercises that test programme theories of change, including realist approaches, and carries out explanatory qualitative analysis. She also develops value-for-money frameworks and evaluates partnership and grantmaking models. Her current focus is helping organisations build the capabilities they need to deliver on climate action.

Cathy began her career with community organisations and small international NGOs in the Global South, and has researched in more than a dozen countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. She’s an Associate Tutor and Research Associate at the University of Sussex, based at the Institute of Development Studies, and co-edited The Politics of Evidence in International Development.

EXPERTISE: Evaluability assessment and formative evaluation · Theory of Change and realist approaches · Value for money · Power and political economy analysis · Organisational learning

QUALIFICATIONS: PhD, aid relationships and organisational accountability

ROLES: Associate Tutor and Research Associate, University of Sussex