Nigel Thornton

Nigel has at various times been a civil servant, an implementer of programmes, and manager and recipient of UK Aid. He has worked in more than 30 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. He has been a front-line deliverer and change manager, notably in Health Services in the UK and South Africa. Nigel was also an adviser in a minister’s private office in South Africa during the first post-Apartheid (ANC) Government. He currently leads the technical team working to support the UK’s Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI). He has often presented evidence to Parliamentary Committees in the UK.

Nigel’s personal practice focuses on lesson learning, specifically using research, experience and evaluation to improve policy-making and practice. He is particularly driven by the desire for knowledge to become applied through action. A geographer and health manager by training, he has a broad technical range; from HIV/AIDS to the political economy of environment/climate change.

Nigel is a Northerner in exile. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he enjoys spending time riding up hills on his bicycles (the correct number always being n+1) and losing at cards to his children.