About the Author
John Ashley graduated in botany from London University, and then applied that knowledge to the field of agriculture for his doctorate, working with the groundnut crop at Makerere University, Uganda. He also holds a degree in psychology from Cambridge, which has proven useful in understanding the various perspectives of stakeholder groups with whom he works, and facilitating a consensus.
Dr Ashley has engaged in projects which have sought to help governments address current food insecurity, and/or increase resilience to future food insecurity. He has multi-sector program experience in agriculture and forestry, rural development, water, environment, health, education, nutrition and social transfers, roads and local government.
He has worked in more than twenty vulnerable and/or conflict-prone countries for over 35 years, especially in Africa and Asia. He was with FAO for five years and then became an adviser to national governments in interventions funded by international organizations or donors. He has conducted research with grain legume and cereal improvement programs in Libya, Kenya, Uganda and Nepal, and taught agronomy, crop physiology, ecology and human nutrition at Makerere University.
Across some forty five consulting assignments since 1986, he has engaged across the project management cycle, including formulating and designing development programs for the EU (economic growth in Somalia, and nutrition-sensitive social transfers in Nigeria), IFAD (Eritrea and Yemen) and Danida (Palestine); project implementation such as a livelihoods project in Afghanistan and another in agricultural extension in eastern Nepal, both with DfID; participatory strategic planning and capacity building with public and private sector in north Africa and Jordan; evaluations (of the EU global Food Facility and food security thematic program Call for Proposals, a gender NGO in Uganda, wadi irrigation projects in Yemen, and economic recovery and job creation projects in the Gaza Strip); formulating agribusiness investment proposals for the government/ USAID in Liberia; climate change response projects for Palestine and coordinating a regional agricultural research program in SADC countries. Dr Ashley’s publications, as sole or contributing author, include three university textbooks on dryland farming and food crops.