Biography

Valentina Barca is a consultant in OPM's Social Development portfolio with extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research design, implementation and analysis, as well as innovative M&E techniques. Her particular interest lies in combining methods for measuring and analysing non-material dimensions of poverty.

Within OPM, Valentina has recently been leading qualitative and participatory research on grievance mechanisms and social accountability in four cash transfer and social protection programmes in Indonesia. She has also just completed a large qualitative evaluation of emergency assistance in Myanmar and has worked on several mixed method evaluations of cash transfer programmes over the past 4 years (analysing issues of accountability, empowerment and voice as well as standard impact areas). This includes extensive fieldwork in Kenya for the Hunger Safety Net Programme, in South Africa for the Child Support Grant, in Lesotho for the Child Grant Programme and in the Maldives for the country’s integrated social protection system. In Moldova, moreover, Valentina supported the implementation of a new poverty-targeted cash benefit through the development of a structured M&E system using triangulation of MIS administrative data, Household Budget Survey data and qualitative scoping studies. One of the studies she co-led, aimed at understanding the reasons for low take up and retention of the benefit, contributed to design a poverty-targeted communications strategy resulting in a further 30% increase of programme take-up. Currently, Valentina is also one of the lead researchers on a FAO six country study on the social impacts of cash transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa.