Monte Achenbach is a seasoned leader in international development with a passion for building markets as an important component of mixed health systems. He believes in evidence-driven approaches that achieve sustained results because they are generated by communities and businesses themselves. He has 30 years of diverse experience, including country, team and technical leadership across seven countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
At Results for Development (R4D), Monte is technical director for Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage where he oversees market development and mixed health systems initiatives aimed at increasing access to products and services in public and private sectors. He oversees and contributes to quality of technical inputs, strategy development, partner and donor liaison, thought leadership and programmatic design efforts.
Before joining R4D, Monte was chief of party for USAID Transform WASH at Population Services International (PSI) Ethiopia, where he led market development efforts that resulted in sales by business partners of more than 70,000 sanitation products and services to household customers across the country. He also served as country representative for PSI in Pakistan and Kenya and deputy regional representative in Central America, as HIV and marketing technical advisor in Cambodia, and as country director for Equal Access International in Cambodia. His background spans multiple health areas including HIV, family planning and reproductive health, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, malaria, TB and cervical cancer. In other experience, Monte worked as a media producer for Spark Media in Washington, DC, as vice president of international programs at Alight (formerly the American Refugee Committee), and as a senior program officer for the National Democratic Institute where he managed democratic development programs in Nepal, Haiti and West Africa.
Monte holds two master’s degrees, one in international economics and development from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a second in communications (film & video) from American University, both in Washington, DC. He also earned a BA in journalism and French from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He speaks English and is also proficient in French, Spanish and Nepali.
