It had long been an ambition of mine to extend my work into a global theatre, and in 1995 that opportunity came in the form of a continuing engagement for our firm to serve as Program Monitors initially for CIDA’s aid efforts in Egypt, then all of North Africa. We built a very strong team that combined lots of global aid experience with our growing reputation for some uniquely progressive OD and performance measurement work here at home. Together, we conceived a new, more integrated approach to measuring the progress and results of community development, capacity-building, gender-based and environmental aid projects, combining pure Results Based Measurement methods with more strategic, theme-driven outcomes.

Our innovative work was appreciated by the OECD’s Development Advisory Council (the DAC), and this in turn led to more opportunities that saw our team conducting related projects for other donors in South Africa, Peru, central Africa, and many other locations around the globe.

The ‘Egypt years’ were a rather unique period in my own career, and the personal growth and transformations I underwent as a result went on to inspire my own continuing studies, and shaped many of my own ideas for the development of modern, global leaders, as we later crafted the Institute for Strategic International Studies for the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.