Steve Fraser

Associate

Steve Fraser served as Technical Director for the Engaged Citizens pillar of the FCDO’s flagship governance programme in Nigeria, the Partnership to Engage Reform & Learn (PERL) from 2016 to 2024. Prior to this, Steve was the Technical Lead (and Deputy Team Leader) of the State Accountability & Voice Initiative (SAVI) from 2008 to 2016, and lead Technical Advisor on a succession of UK-funded, ‘issue-based’ projects in the north of Nigeria: the Joint Wetlands Livelihoods Project (2002-2007); the State & Local Government Programme’s Wudil Water Initiative (2007-2008) and Coalition for Change’s Northern Nigeria Water Governance Initiative (2007-2009). Prior to this Steve did four years of voluntary service overseas (1991-1995) as a development worker in a remote rural community in central Nigeria, followed by four years of anthropological research on inter-communal (herder-farmer) land-use conflict whilst managing Savanna Conservation Nigeria’s Pastoral Inclusion Programme (1997-2000).

In all, Steve has spent over 30 years living, studying and working in Nigeria as a development practitioner, mostly field based. Initial focus was on facilitating multi-stakeholder platforms for dialogue and institutional reform in land and water resources management, then more broadly institutional strengthening of social accountability mechanisms, and now inclusive governance of public finance management. Within this context, Steve now specialises in supporting international development programme/project teams to establish and manage integrated technical systems and processes that support locally-led, politically smart, inclusive and conflict-sensitive interventions that benefit from learning and evidence-based contextual analysis, flexibility and adaptation, outcome mapping, value-for-money analysis and cross-programme collaboration.

Steve joined The Policy Practice in 2024 to work with colleagues to apply the learning from his experience in Nigeria in other development programmes and engage debates on the implementation of international development policy.