Professional info
Mary O’Connell holds a BSc (Hons) in Science, Technology and Society from Middlesex University (1992). Mary worked in the policy team at WaterAid for ten years focused on capacity building for policy engagment. She also worked with Freshwater Action Network getting voices of the global south into national, regional and global arenas for direct and collective advocacy.
Mary is passionate about rights based approaches and capacity development for engaging civil society representatives in policy making processes at the national level to support their efforts to increase access to WASH resources for poor and marginalised communities. She is an advocate for positive engagement within multi-stakeholder forums where local civil society needs to be professionally represented.
Mary’s is adept at participatory planning and advocacy and communications strategy development. She is a dynamic communicator skilled at producing creative learning processes and resources including simple guides for sector audiences to support the reader to access complex global policy and process ‘subjects’ in interesting and useful ways.
Country experience
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Liberia
Malawi
Nigeria
Rwanda
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
South Asia:
India
Nepal
Bangladesh