Biography

Mary Strode is a statistician with over 20 years' experience in developing countries, including Africa, central Asia, the Pacific and central America. She is currently supporting the data quality component of the Millennium Challenge Accounts in Namibia and Vanuatu, the analysis of the most recent Zambian Living Conditions Monitoring Survey and the development of district statistical capacity in Mozambique. She has a background in statistical capacity building and statistical reform and led a project to provide an international evaluation framework for statistical capacity building, which included country and donor case studies evaluated in the context of the Paris Declaration. She has seven years' experience of developing statistical modernisation strategies and of coordinating national statistical systems and has worked in this capacity in Ethiopia, South Africa, Liberia, Pakistan, the Gambia and Rwanda. In South Africa, she also supported the development of a statistical quality assessment frameworks and instruments for coordinating the national statistical system. She implemented statistical reform in Rwanda and the Gambia and recently authored a paper on comparative models of statistical governance for DFID. Mary's academic background is in survey statistics (MSc Survey Methods). She recently designed the forthcoming Living Conditions Survey in Rwanda, which followed on from the project she led to support the design and analysis of the 2005/6 survey. Her survey experience includes a panel-design Household Budget Survey and quality assurance and analysis of several Living Condition Monitoring type surveys. She recently authored a DFID 'How to' note on gender analysis of household surveys and has a special interest in labour force analysis. Mary previously worked for DFID and as an independent consultant, which included secondment to statistical offices, long-term advisory roles and short-term assignments. In 1999, she was seconded to the OECD where she worked to establish the PARIS21 initiative. At the OECD, she worked extensively on statistical advocacy materials, including the conception and production of the film 'Measuring the Change in World Poverty' and the conceptualisation and facilitation of peer reviews of statistical systems in African countries.