Tracy Jooste (she/her/hers) is a social impact practitioner with over fifteen years of experience leading equity and accountability initiatives in South Africa. She advocates for fairer access to essential services including healthcare, water, sanitation and housing, while championing women’s rights. She is skilled in participatory governance, partnership-building, shaping public policy, and navigating budget processes using community-driven data. She is trained in social research, public policy and urban studies.
At Results for Development (R4D), Tracy is the associate director of the Governance Action Hub which supports local agents across four countries to generate context-relevant ideas while connecting those ideas and innovators with the governance and anti-corruption global community. She coordinates the Hub’s work with local partners, supporting the collaborative generation of solutions to challenges, testing those solutions, pursuing impact through changes in policy and bridging implementation gaps in existing efforts.
Tracy has held leadership roles in academia, public, private and non-profit sectors where she has guided diverse teams to achieve significant outcomes. She has established several strategic partnerships to design innovative policies and shape inclusive decision-making. She pioneered a gender-responsive budgeting program in South Africa, which led to improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for women and girls, and the introduction of a new government policy for gender-responsive services. She was the principal instructor for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) online Public Management and Governance leadership program, where she trained young professionals from 14 African countries. She is a senior atlantic fellow for social and economic equity at LSE, an inaugural leader in residence for policy change at the Atlantic Institute, and an alumna of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders.
In her previous role as head of special programs at International Budget Partnership South Africa, she served on the leadership team of a national campaign which impacted more than 5 million informal settlement residents by improving the quality and quantity of WASH services. She spearheaded a health advocacy campaign in partnership with a community-based partner organization, which improved healthcare services at 45 public clinics serving over 650,000 people. This initiative also led to the reintroduction of vital youth and women’s health services at several clinics.
Tracy currently serves on the board of Isandla Institute in South Africa and recently completed a three-year term on the Global Fellows Advisory Board at the Atlantic Institute in England.
Tracy holds a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics and a master’s degree in public policy, both from the University of Cape Town. She earned a postgraduate diploma in housing and urban finance from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
