Richard Waddington

Director, Inclusive Growth & Resilience at IPE Global Limited

Richard has recently joined IPE Triple Line as Director of Private Sector Development and is based in Nairobi. He brings 15 years of experience related to market systems development (both urban and rural), value-chain strengthening, business environment reform and youth employment from across Africa and Asia. Richard was previously Head of Growth for Adam Smith International (ASI), leading programme delivery and business development across a range of thematic areas relating to private sector development and inclusive growth in Eastern and Southern Africa. He also brings extensive experience in the design of M & E systems for private sector programming. Prior to becoming Head of Growth for Eastern and Southern Africa, he was seconded by ASI for 5 years to the Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) where Richard was responsible for the delivery of the £23m multi-donor Kenya Market Assistance Programme. KMAP was a partnership between ASI and KMT designed to apply a market systems development approach to smallholder agriculture and basic services across Kenya. KMAP was funded by DFID, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Embassy. Before moving to East Africa, Richard’s career with ASI was primarily focused in Afghanistan where he oversaw the implementation of a number of key DFID private sector programmes supporting trade and investment in Afghanistan. Richard's early career in the development consulting industry was with Bannock Consulting, a specialist provider of SME development and governance reform services which was latterly taken over by DAI and became DAI Europe. At DAI Europe he worked on a range of business environment reform programmes in East and West Africa, as well as governance reforms in Eastern Europe.