Advisory services

Advice for heritage, development, and institutional challenges

I provide senior advisory, research, training, and facilitation for organizations working where culture, history, development, equity, and institutional change meet. An engagement can be a focused expert review or a single executive briefing, or a multi-stage strategy, research, or capacity-building assignment.

Heritage & Restitution

Development Policy

Gender & Intercultural

Grants, Research & Training

How engagements work

01 Cultural Heritage, Restitution & Site Interpretation

Heritage is never only about the past. Decisions about what to preserve, how to interpret it, and who holds it shape identity, trust, and legitimacy today. I advise on the management, interpretation, and restitution of cultural heritage, drawing on international heritage practice, historical research, community participation, and Indigenous and customary knowledge.

What I do

World Heritage nomination strategy and dossier-readiness review

Interpretation strategies for contested sites, difficult histories, and public memory

Restitution-policy frameworks, provenance analysis, and customary-law perspectives.

Indigenous and community participation frameworks for heritage governance and interpretation.

Review of significance statements, site narratives, interpretation plans, stakeholder strategies, and public-facing content.

Integrating culture and heritage into Sustainable Development Goal strategies

What you receive

Expert review memo • interpretation framework • policy brief • stakeholder strategy • workshop • executive briefing • research report • nomination advisory

Who it’s for

Heritage agencies, ministries, museums, site managers, World Heritage nomination teams, local authorities, cultural NGOs, architecture and planning teams, universities, and international partners.

02 International Development & Decolonial Policy Strategy

Many development programs fail for reasons that were visible in the history all along. I provide independent analysis of aid, development programs, investment, bilateral relations, and institutional power in Africa and the Global South. The aim is not critique for its own sake, but better policy: grounded in historical context, local realities, and a clear understanding of structural dependency.

What I do

Critical review of aid, philanthropic, and development frameworks

Historical and political context analysis for programs, investments, and partnerships

Policy recommendations for Voluntary Local Reviews and SDG alignment

Assessment of foreign-investment implications and regional development strategies

Stakeholder mapping, assumption testing, and institutional-risk analysis

What you receive

Policy brief • strategic memo • program review • context analysis • stakeholder map • executive briefing • facilitated strategy session

Who it’s for

International organizations, development agencies, governments, foundations, think tanks, NGOs, universities, and private-sector teams that need credible Africa and Global South context.

03 Gender, Equity & Intercultural Strategy

Inclusion fails when it is added at the end. I help institutions build gender responsiveness, intercultural competence, and genuine participation into policy and programs from the start, especially for communities whose perspectives are too often left out of policy and heritage decisions.

What I do

Gender impact assessment for institutional, municipal, cultural, and development initiatives

Intercultural competence frameworks for international teams, universities, and cross-border partnerships

Inclusive policy and program design with marginalized communities and informal settlements

Integrating culture and gender into SDG implementation

Facilitated dialogue, training, and strategy sessions on inclusion and intercultural practice

Review of public narratives and engagement plans for representation and equity

What you receive

Assessment memo • inclusion framework • workshop • facilitated dialogue • policy recommendations • program-design review

Who it’s for

Universities, municipalities, cultural institutions, NGOs, foundations, development programs, and international teams working across cultures.

04 Grant Design, Research Strategy & Executive Training

Good ideas lose funding every day because the problem is poorly framed or the implementation logic is thin. I help institutions build stronger research programs, compete for external funding, design better projects, and develop their people.

What I do

End-to-end grant development for international foundations and research or heritage funders

Concept development: problem framing, objectives, work plans, outcomes, and implementation logic

Proposal review and narrative strengthening before submission

Research strategy, qualitative-methods design, and evidence synthesis

Grant-writing and social-impact project workshops tailored to your team

Digital humanities and public-history training, including archive and Omeka-based projects

Curriculum development, research mentoring, train-the-trainer programs, and international partnership strategy

What you receive

Concept note • proposal review • workshop • research strategy • training curriculum • project framework • capacity-building program

Who it’s for

Universities, research centers, NGOs, heritage organizations, academic teams, foundations, and social-impact initiatives.

How engagements work

From first note to agreed scope

01

Share the problem. Send a short note through the inquiry form: what you are working on, what you need, and when.

02

Scoping conversation. If the work is a good fit, we schedule a short call to clarify objectives, constraints, and the most useful format.

03

Proposal & agreement. I send a written scope with deliverables, timeline, and terms. Work begins once we agree.

Formats

Ways to work together

Expert Review

A focused review of a dossier, policy, interpretation plan, proposal, strategy, or report, with written recommendations.

Advisory Sprint

A short, time-bound engagement to clarify a problem, test assumptions, and produce a practical strategy or decision framework.

Project Advisory

Multi-stage support across research, strategy, stakeholder engagement, project design, and implementation.

Workshops & Executive Training

Tailored in-person or virtual sessions for leadership teams, staff, researchers, or community stakeholders.

Retained Advisory

Ongoing senior counsel for organizations managing complex, recurring, or multi-country work.

Keynotes & Facilitation

Keynotes, moderated conversations, and facilitated sessions for conferences, boards, and convenings.

Not sure which area fits?

Most real problems cross more than one. Describe the challenge in your own words and I will suggest where to start.