Fletcher Tembo

Fletcher Tembo is a Research Fellow within RAPID. He has been working in the RAPID Group since January 2007. He manages the Mwananchi Project, working with partners in seven African countries to strengthen citizen engagement in policy processes. His project experience includes networking, capacity development and action-research projects on relations among civil society, media and elected representatives and use of evidence to influence good governance. Fletcher also coordinates ODI M&E and Learning inputs into Kenya Drivers of Accountability Programme (Kenya DAP); and the Africa component of the Evidence Based Policy in Development Network. He coordinates research relationships with Japan, especially the JICA Research Institute and GRIPS.

His main research interests inclue: the roles of non-state actors in good governance and transparency, aid and poverty reduction strategies, Japanese aid and the ‘One Village One Product’ model, analysis of donor modalities for supporting civil society in developing countries, analysis of patterns and trends of capacity development support mechanisms for non-state actors in developing countries, the design and monitoring of community-based development projects, and social accountability tools.
His book, Participation, Negotiation and Poverty, emphasised the importance of understanding the power and politics of negotiations between local communities and civil society organisations, with non-governmental organisations and state actors, in order to design effective ‘citizen empowerment’ projects. His publication ‘Poverty Reduction: are the strategies working?’ was widely used in reviews of poverty reduction strategies in the context of seeking to rebalance accountabilities from international donors to a country’s citizens in aid delivery mechanisms.

Fletcher has a PhD in International and Rural development from the University of Reading. His thesis was on ‘Understanding 'agency' through interface image-conflicts for improving the design of NGOs' social transformation projects’. He also has an MA in Rural Social Development from the University of Reading. Before joining RAPID, Fletcher was a Senior Economic Justice Policy Adviser for World Vision UK and managed Community Area Development Programmes in Malawi.