SENIOR ADVISOR & CONSULTANT
“I am passionate about enabling citizens to hold their government accountable and ensuring that development interventions are context-appropriate, understand the power dynamics within communities, and work to make sure everyone has a chance to participate in decisions that affect their lives.”
Ms. King consults in areas of development policy, communications, and research with specializations in the aid effectiveness principles of ownership, transparency, and accountability.
With twelve years of experience, she also specializes in political economy, systems thinking, and community engagement approaches.
Ms. King has consulted for INGOs on the development of USAID proposals, specifically in the democracy, rights, and governance sector. She has conducted evaluations/assessments of INGO programming as it relates to policy influencing with host governments, sustainability approaches and efforts to advocate for policy and practice changes within the US Government and UN system. Her expertise in evidence-based policy formation, policy influencing, and deep understanding of aid effectiveness practice approaches, enable her to connect global policy to practical implementation in the field.
During her time with Save the Children, Gretchen was an active member of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Networks’ efforts to gather evidence and develop recommendations for the US Government related to country ownership, and the transparency and accountability of aid. She conducted research and assessed USAID projects related to the Local Solutions Initiative and MCC compacts on efforts to work with local actors, align projects, and strategies with country priorities, and support domestic resource mobilization.
Additionally, Ms. King was a member of the Save the Children/Oxfam America/Overseas Development Institute team that developed the Local Engagement Assessment Framework (LEAF) to determine the level of ownership in a project or strategy. She helped to field test and modify the tool in Uganda and was a member of the research team that assessed the MCC compact in Jordan.
She holds Master’s Degree in Violence, Conflict, and Development from University of London’s School of Oriental and Africa Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Columbia College Chicago. She is also certified in public participation techniques and planning and social network analysis.