Cathy Chames

Cathy is a Senior Consultant and Managing Member of Southern Hemisphere. Cathy has a BSocSc (Social Work) and holds a Masters in Social Science (Social Development) awarded with distinction, both from the University of Cape Town. She practiced in the field of Social Work for 14 years before joining Southern Hemisphere in 2009 and is now a managing member and senior consultant on the team.  Since joining Southern Hemisphere she honed her skills in the fields of applied research; planning monitoring and evaluation; and training and has experience in a range of sectors.  More recently she has worked in the field of social protection, migration, early childhood development, child protection, adolescence and youth.  Cathy has a particular interest and experience in applying a systems approach as a conceptual framework for the design of research, programmes, evaluations and policy. She has worked in the Southern and Central African region including South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia and Rwanda and thus has a good understanding of government systems and processes in these countries.  Cathy is a member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association.  Recent experience highlights:

Applied research and evaluation

  • Team leader of the fieldwork team working on the DFID-sponsored Technical Scoping Study for Design: Harnessing Migration for Inclusive Growth and Development in Southern Africa (2016)
  • Team leader for Organisational evaluation for Ekupholeni Mental Health and Trauma Centre, including community based HIV/AIDS care and support project, Misereor, Bread for the World (2016)
  • Senior evaluator on the baseline study of the iloveLife Innovation Fund – a project aiming to ensure better access to adolescent and youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services on behalf of UNFPA, loveLife and the Department of Health (2016)
  • Co-team leader on the United Nation Joint Project on Protecting Migrant Children from Trafficking and Exploitation in Zambia (2016)
  • Team leader for Systems Mapping for Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children, for Save the Children South Africa (2015/2016)
  • Senior evaluator on the implementation evaluation of the National Drug Master Plan, DPME and Department of Social Development, South African Government (2015/16)
  • Senior evaluator on the Mapping of Early Childhood Development for UNICEF Rwanda (2014/15)
  • Co-team leader on the Implementation Evaluation of the Safer South Africa Programme on Violence Against Women and Children, for UNICEF, UNFPA, Save the Children and funded by DFiD (2014/15)
  • Team leader for Evaluation of Phila Mntwana Program on health promotion and the establishment of disease prevention sites for children (0-5 years) in Ugu District, KwaZulu Natal, Ilifa Labantwana and the DG Murray Trust (2014)
  • Team leader for Assessment of the effectiveness of the social protection system in reducing child poverty (community based analysis); UNICEF, Namibia (2011)

Programme design, MEL systems

  • Co-team leader on the development of a M&E framework for the South African National Youth Policy for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency and UNFPA (2017)
  • Facilitation of a Theory of Change for Improved Governance and Institutional Capacity Strengthening of Malawi Tea Smallholders Trusts and NSTGA, UTZ (2017)
  • Facilitation of a Theory of Change for the landscape based climate change adaptation plans project in support of the Malawi 2020 Tea Revitalisation Programme, UTZ (2017)

Capacity Building

  • Development of a Training Module on Coordination of Social Protection  for International Labour Organisation (2016)
  • Mentor for grantees of Tshikululu Social Investments in the Environment Sector (2015)
  • Trainer for Southern Hemisphere public and in-house courses

Organisational strategy

  • Facilitation of the National Planning Commission’s Lekgotla for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the Presidency (2016)
  • Strategic Review of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town (2016)
  • Co-team leader on the development of a strategy to strengthening coordination mechanisms for social protection in Zambia for UNICEF Zambia (2015/16)