Bianca Samson joined Dalberg in 2018 in Rwanda. Since then, she has supported development leaders, such as government ministries, multinational foundations, and private sector players, in healthcare, agriculture, financial services, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL).

Bianca, who is the co-lead for the MEL practice area, is passionate about ensuring MEL is used strategically to pivot programming, going beyond counting numbers to showcase the impact stories of the end beneficiary. In her work with organizations such as Mastercard Foundation and INVEST, a USAID buy-in mechanism, as the learning partner, she focussed on developing relevant frameworks to ensure lessons were used for strategic decision-making. MEL sits at the intersection of her other passion areas, and as such, she has conducted numerous evaluations in finance and regulations, economic development, peacebuilding, and education. Another expertise area for Bianca is climate, where her climate expertise spans biodiversity conservation, pipeline development, climate-smart agriculture solutions, and the intersection of gender and climate. She recently co-authored articles in this space: looking at agriculture solutions with a gender and climate lens and focussing on how investors can support small-holder farmers while also regenerating the environment.

Prior to Dalberg, Bianca worked at Catalyst for Growth, where she focused on catalyzing the ecosystem of small business development in South Africa, measuring the impact of incubators and accelerators, and she worked for an organization called Instinctif Partners as a consultant in public policy and corporate affairs.

Bianca completed her post-graduate studies with a masters of science in international relations from the University of Edinburgh (UK), and also holds a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in sociology and politics and an Honours degree in international relations from the University of Cape Town (class of 2011).

Articles:

• Supporting Women Farmers in the Age of Climate Change: Why It’s Time To Look at Agriculture Solutions Through Both a Gender and Climate Lens, Next Billion
• Climate-Positive Agriculture: How Investors Can Support Smallholder Farmers – While Also Regenerating the Environment, Next Billion