Michele Aaron is a senior grants and contracts expert with over 20 years of experience in international development. She has successfully managed FCDO, EC, GTZ, UNICEF, USAID and emergency funds and supported projects in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the UK and the Caribbean via bi-lateral, multi-lateral and centrally managed programs.
She is the grants and contracts manager at Results for Development (R4D) supporting the UK grants implementation teams.
Michele has been instrumental in seeking approval from the government of India for the FCDO-funded International NGOs Partnerships Agreement Program (IPAP) to tackle social exclusion and discrimination. The most notable impact was a new policy on shelters for the urban homeless, Right to Education (RTE), National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and sanitation policies and programs. IPAP INGOs and CSO partners were nominated to various working groups for India’s next 5 year plan and applied IPAP-generated evidence to inform this.
Michele is passionate about sustainable development and the circular economy. She joined the Palladium Team/Partnerships for Forests (P4F) as a member of the senior management team in setting up and delivering the FCDO-funded Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (IFSLU) program. The IFSLU has played an important role as a follow-up to specific UK commitments and initiatives launched at COP26. Michele set up the architecture for grant approvals across the consortia and FCDO and initiated the 2-stage due diligence approach to assess applicants through the funnel from nascent ideas to scale. Michele conducted risk assessments on grantee application and provided recommendations to the senior leadership team. The impact of P4F’s portfolio via public-private partnerships has secured investment of £890m into sustainable agriculture, forest protection and restoration, against a target of £183m by 2023, and ensuring sustainable management across 4.1m hectares of land, against a 2023 outcome target of 1.2m hectares.
As part of the global emergency response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Michele joined the CBM International team in Port-au-Prince as head of operations to deliver emergency aid and rehabilitation to persons with disabilities.
Michele has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, North America and the UK. She has a Master’s degree in commerce from Delhi University and a M.Sc. in development management for the Open University, and Mutuals Fund Dealer Compliance from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. She is a native speaker of English and has a working knowledge of Hindi.
