Ama Marston is the founder and director of Marston Consulting. We are a London based consultancy with global reach providing strategy and leadership services. We focus on
fostering women’s empowerment and transformative leadership while providing thought leadership, strategy and analysis that contribute to building inclusive and sustainable economies and businesses.
BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and now works in nine other countries with very impoverish... more BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and now works in nine other countries with very impoverished populations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia. From its years of experience designing and implementing microfinance and other programs, BRAC gained the insight that a unique set of interventions is required to bring out of extreme poverty those who they, and now others, call the "ultra-poor": people living on half or less of a US $1.25-a-day poverty threshold. BRAC pioneered the approach in 2002 by combining social safety nets with support for income-generating, and named it the Graduation approach, or Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program. Graduation programs complement small cash stipends and in-kind asset transfers with several other sequenced interventions including savings, training, social integration and health care services. Over the last decade the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the ...
Women cocoa farmers are central to the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain and cocoa-growing... more Women cocoa farmers are central to the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain and cocoa-growing communities. Too often unrecognized and undervalued, women’s labor makes significant contributions to the amount of cocoa produced, which is under increasing demand. Empowering women cocoa farmers not only has a positive impact on the lives of women, men and communities, but also has a business advantage. When women have control over their own income or family earnings, they reinvest in their families, children and communities, increasing the well-being and the sustainability of cocoa-growing communities. Through its Behind the Brands campaign, Oxfam challenged the cocoa sector to take action to strengthen the rights of women cocoa farmers. Within months, they responded and made significant commitments to address women’s empowerment at the farm level. But there remains little shared knowledge of what emerging good practice actually looks like. This report provides examples of good prac...
Conservation Measures Partnership, Moore Foundation, 2020
The intertwined nature of the Coronavirus-related crises is extending the definition of "politica... more The intertwined nature of the Coronavirus-related crises is extending the definition of "political risk because so many risks and kinds of uncertainties have become co-mingled, and together they are stretching institutions, leaders, and societies to their limits. This has posed both unique challenges as well as some opportunities for leaders and organizations in general as well as the field of conservation specifically.
This paper summaries trends and insights from over two dozen leaders, organizations, and experts as well as presenting tools and key questions for navigating, adapting to and creating resilience in the face of extensive political, social and economic upheaval.
The paper is a follow-up to "Navigating and Adapting to Political Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation". (2019)
Both papers have been made possible by the Conservation Measures Partnership and the Moore Foundation
Addressing illegal wildlife trade is critical to help prevent future epidemics like Coronavirus.... more Addressing illegal wildlife trade is critical to help prevent future epidemics like Coronavirus. To be able to do so we need to be effective as possible including incorporating political risk & uncertainty in planning to be able to resilient & deliver results. Read insights for conservation & purpose driven organizations based on work with 24 experts on 6 continents. (conservation Measures Partnership, WWF, Moore Foundation)
An evaluation carried out for UN Women to measure progress and national and regional contribution... more An evaluation carried out for UN Women to measure progress and national and regional contributions towards meeting Beijing gender goals and sustainability goals for Rio+20 (A predecessor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This advisory note is intended to foreground the gaps in the current approach to women economic e... more This advisory note is intended to foreground the gaps in the current approach to women economic empowerment measurements and assessments of interventions. It provides a summary of an extensive literature review of women empowerment, entrepreneurship, and employment studies, and pulls upon lessons learnt from research conducted with a pilot initiative, Walmart’s Empowering Women Together program. It recognizes how the field has evolved beyond the scope of the literature to incorporate new actors, namely corporates, and new forms of interventions that introduce complexities of a global marketplace. The results bring to the fore: a need to move beyond the growth-focused business metrics found in entrepreneurship and women-employment studies; a need for find common metrics that can transcend economic-states (i.e. developing versus developed countries) and disciplinary-based approaches (i.e. development studies versus women studies versus business studies), and a need to rethink the ‘theory of change’ to capture empowerment as a process that unfolds over time with positive and backward steps.
The Advisory Note is the last in a series of outputs coming out of the Walmart Empowering Women Together research project. There are also three case studies and one teaching case, all of which help to illustrate the reasons we questioned the advisability of certain current practices and measures. (Refer to the posted cases).
BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and now works in nine other countries with very impoverish... more BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 and now works in nine other countries with very impoverished populations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia. From its years of experience designing and implementing microfinance and other programs, BRAC gained the insight that a unique set of interventions is required to bring out of extreme poverty those who they, and now others, call the "ultra-poor": people living on half or less of a US $1.25-a-day poverty threshold. BRAC pioneered the approach in 2002 by combining social safety nets with support for income-generating, and named it the Graduation approach, or Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program. Graduation programs complement small cash stipends and in-kind asset transfers with several other sequenced interventions including savings, training, social integration and health care services. Over the last decade the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the ...
Women cocoa farmers are central to the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain and cocoa-growing... more Women cocoa farmers are central to the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain and cocoa-growing communities. Too often unrecognized and undervalued, women’s labor makes significant contributions to the amount of cocoa produced, which is under increasing demand. Empowering women cocoa farmers not only has a positive impact on the lives of women, men and communities, but also has a business advantage. When women have control over their own income or family earnings, they reinvest in their families, children and communities, increasing the well-being and the sustainability of cocoa-growing communities. Through its Behind the Brands campaign, Oxfam challenged the cocoa sector to take action to strengthen the rights of women cocoa farmers. Within months, they responded and made significant commitments to address women’s empowerment at the farm level. But there remains little shared knowledge of what emerging good practice actually looks like. This report provides examples of good prac...
Conservation Measures Partnership, Moore Foundation, 2020
The intertwined nature of the Coronavirus-related crises is extending the definition of "politica... more The intertwined nature of the Coronavirus-related crises is extending the definition of "political risk because so many risks and kinds of uncertainties have become co-mingled, and together they are stretching institutions, leaders, and societies to their limits. This has posed both unique challenges as well as some opportunities for leaders and organizations in general as well as the field of conservation specifically.
This paper summaries trends and insights from over two dozen leaders, organizations, and experts as well as presenting tools and key questions for navigating, adapting to and creating resilience in the face of extensive political, social and economic upheaval.
The paper is a follow-up to "Navigating and Adapting to Political Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation". (2019)
Both papers have been made possible by the Conservation Measures Partnership and the Moore Foundation
Addressing illegal wildlife trade is critical to help prevent future epidemics like Coronavirus.... more Addressing illegal wildlife trade is critical to help prevent future epidemics like Coronavirus. To be able to do so we need to be effective as possible including incorporating political risk & uncertainty in planning to be able to resilient & deliver results. Read insights for conservation & purpose driven organizations based on work with 24 experts on 6 continents. (conservation Measures Partnership, WWF, Moore Foundation)
An evaluation carried out for UN Women to measure progress and national and regional contribution... more An evaluation carried out for UN Women to measure progress and national and regional contributions towards meeting Beijing gender goals and sustainability goals for Rio+20 (A predecessor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This advisory note is intended to foreground the gaps in the current approach to women economic e... more This advisory note is intended to foreground the gaps in the current approach to women economic empowerment measurements and assessments of interventions. It provides a summary of an extensive literature review of women empowerment, entrepreneurship, and employment studies, and pulls upon lessons learnt from research conducted with a pilot initiative, Walmart’s Empowering Women Together program. It recognizes how the field has evolved beyond the scope of the literature to incorporate new actors, namely corporates, and new forms of interventions that introduce complexities of a global marketplace. The results bring to the fore: a need to move beyond the growth-focused business metrics found in entrepreneurship and women-employment studies; a need for find common metrics that can transcend economic-states (i.e. developing versus developed countries) and disciplinary-based approaches (i.e. development studies versus women studies versus business studies), and a need to rethink the ‘theory of change’ to capture empowerment as a process that unfolds over time with positive and backward steps.
The Advisory Note is the last in a series of outputs coming out of the Walmart Empowering Women Together research project. There are also three case studies and one teaching case, all of which help to illustrate the reasons we questioned the advisability of certain current practices and measures. (Refer to the posted cases).
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This paper summaries trends and insights from over two dozen leaders, organizations, and experts as well as presenting tools and key questions for navigating, adapting to and creating resilience in the face of extensive political, social and economic upheaval.
The paper is a follow-up to "Navigating and Adapting to Political Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation". (2019)
Both papers have been made possible by the Conservation Measures Partnership and the Moore Foundation
The Advisory Note is the last in a series of outputs coming out of the Walmart Empowering Women Together research project. There are also three case studies and one teaching case, all of which help to illustrate the reasons we questioned the advisability of certain current practices and measures. (Refer to the posted cases).
This paper summaries trends and insights from over two dozen leaders, organizations, and experts as well as presenting tools and key questions for navigating, adapting to and creating resilience in the face of extensive political, social and economic upheaval.
The paper is a follow-up to "Navigating and Adapting to Political Risk and Uncertainty in Conservation". (2019)
Both papers have been made possible by the Conservation Measures Partnership and the Moore Foundation
The Advisory Note is the last in a series of outputs coming out of the Walmart Empowering Women Together research project. There are also three case studies and one teaching case, all of which help to illustrate the reasons we questioned the advisability of certain current practices and measures. (Refer to the posted cases).