Tom Aston
Role: Governance Advisor
Team: Inclusive Governance team
Profile:
Tom was the monitoring, evaluation and research lead for the inclusive governance team. He particularly looked at the application of theory-based evaluation methods such as contribution tracing and outcome mapping.
He joined CARE International UK in 2012, providing support to the Latin America and the Caribbean and Middle East and North Africa regions, particularly in conducting political economy analyses, and conducting studies on social accountability and advocacy.
He has an MSc in Development Administration and Planning from University College London (UCL) and is doing a PhD on the political economy of cash transfers, with Bolivia as a case study. Previously he worked for CARE Bolivia and as a consultant for the ODI and UCL on issues of social protection and disaster risk reduction.
One good thing I've read
For those of you looking to unlock the activist inside you I recommend Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the dark: Untold histories, wild possibilities.
Blog posts
Measuring the impact of advocacy: it’s not easy, but it’s not impossible
Friday, 08 November 2019 15:53By Tom Aston and Jay Goulden
Measuring the impact of advocacy may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Yes advocacy is different, but it’s
How to double your impact through advocacy and influencing
Tuesday, 08 October 2019 09:19Advocacy and influencing is at the heart of CARE’s program strategy – otherwise we couldn’t achieve our aims
Sounding clever or being smart? – How to do more with less in evaluating governance programmes
Tuesday, 25 September 2018 15:52About a decade ago, the development sector fell into the same trap the financial services industry did in the mid-1990s. We were all seduced by clever people selling clever methods we didn’t really understand. Only, we had a different acronym.
One step back, two steps forward: CARE’s journey towards doing development differently
Monday, 07 August 2017 13:37The Doing Development Different (DDD) community emerged in August 2014 and advocates that (a) the barriers to development are as much political as technical; (b) international development agencies therefore need to design programmes to be
How to avoid toolsplaining: Thinking differently about social accountability
Wednesday, 28 June 2017 13:40On the plane to Accra just over a week ago I read Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me (the origin of the term
Capturing complex change: Is it really all about confidence?
Monday, 22 May 2017 09:48For those of us that sing the praises of social accountability (citizen-driven initiatives to hold those in power to account), making a claim about “impact” (or transformative change) is a challenge we face on a daily basis. And CARE’s not
Doing Development Differently two years on: not just a fad, but real substance
Friday, 27 January 2017 14:54At the end of 2016 the Doing Development Differently community held a workshop to take stock. What have we learned over the past two years? Is anything actually
Invitation to launch of report on domestic workers and the ratification of ILO Convention 189
Thursday, 03 April 2014 15:31CARE International UK invites you to the launch of our latest report on domestic workers and the ratification of ILO Convention 189.
Venue: One Great George Street, Westminster SW1P 3 AA
Making decent work a reality for domestic workers: civil society's experience of ratifying ILO Convention 189 in the Andes
Sunday, 06 April 2014 23:00In 2011, the International Labour Conference voted to adopt Convention 189 which, for the first time, mandates state supported protection to ensure decent work for domestic workers. Yet to date, only 12 countries have ratified and submitted
