Way, way back at the start of my career, I was given a great opportunity at the company Yandilla Park in the Riverland region of Australia. They actively employed new graduates and trained them on the job through working with more expereienced technical staff. Building skills for the whole industry was their legacy, and I have tried to do similar whenever I have had the opprtunity. It is great to have a program here in Portugal that helps finance this, and Francisco is the beneficiary of this support.

The Growth and Employment in States program is funded by the British Government (DFID). Stuart was engaged in 2016 and earlier in 2017 to undertake the Annual Reviews GEMS 4, which operates in the wholesale and retail market sector. In 2015 Stuart also undertook the Program Completion Review of GEMS 1 (Meat and Leather) and in 2014 was part of the team that undertook the Mid Term Evaluation of the GEMS suite of projects.

In all these reviews, Stuart has also provided technical support on the Market System Development (MSD) approach being used (also referred to as M4P).

Each review has required extensive regional travel in Nigeria, and also engagement with a wide range of private and public sector stakeholders to the GEMS projects.