Noel Matthews, Founder and Director
An Irish citizen working in Asia, Africa, Arab states and Europe, Noel has designed and directed a wide range of development and democratic governance programmes and initiatives over the last 25 years. He has particularly focussed on institutional development in the areas of local governance, peace-building in democratic transitions, social accountability and transparency in public administration, civil society enabling environments, civic education and engagement, women’s political participation & 
gender equality and constitutional development, as well as sectoral reform work in health and rural development.
In addition to a sense of humour, he brings an eclectic list of specialisms to these practice areas including political economy and conflict analysis, policy and strategy development, program and organisational management, capacity development, multi-stakeholder dialogue processes, aid coordination and developing advisory practices in the field of democratic governance.
In practice this has meant that he has focused on developing strategic and institutional development frameworks for democratic governance and locating these within effective capacity development, multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership mechanisms. This has including developing, advising, directing or assisting programs in a diverse range of sectors/subsectors with an emphasis on developing state and non-state participation and accountability mechanisms and the capacities to support a human rights-based approach to governance.
Noel has also served as a senior advisor and leader within various bi-lateral and UN agencies in Asia and Africa, as well as various long-term consultancy roles for UN, EU, World Bank and other bi-lateral/multi-lateral agencies.
