Jo has worked for Oxfam GB since 2001, initially with the UK Poverty Programme then in a senior advisory role, and now as team lead for the Governance advisory team.

She works with programme mangers and staff to support and develop programming and learning on citizens and states, including governance and institutional accountability. Since 2009, she has also been working to support Oxfam GB’s programme delivery and effectiveness in fragile and conflict-affected countries.

Jo supports staff and partners in enabling poor women and men to become empowered and be heard by decision makers and to hold their governments and other institutions accountable in delivering good quality basic services and making effective use of the resources available to them (including aid, tax and other income).  This includes looking for ways to strengthen constructive engagement between people and formal and informal power-holders.

Before coming to Oxfam GB, Jo worked with VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) managing the programme development and evaluation unit, and as programme officer in the Philippines. Further back, she worked as a consultant in the cooperative sector, both in the UK and Latin America. She studied issues of power and the concept of ’empowerment’, based on community level field research in Honduras, resulting in a PhD from Durham University, where she also worked for a while as a Lecturer. The resulting book, ‘Questioning Empowerment‘ is still a core text in many Masters programmes.