Mary Cole believes that capacity development methods need to improve before countries can improve. A champion for strengthening Africa, Ms Cole has served national governments and international multi- and bi- lateral organisations as well as financial institutions, namely the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) where Mary served in Operations and Operations Evaluation as a programme and evaluation leader, M&E specialist and operations evaluation manager.

Now an independent consultant, Ms Cole’s current interest is in developing monitoring and evaluation frameworks for metropolitan city governance and climate change response strategies  in various sectors and contexts.

Mary Cole holds a Master of Education in Monitoring and Evaluation from the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); a Master of Science in Environment and Development from the University of Wisconsin (USA) and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Geography from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).