Alexandra Nastase

Alexandra Nastase is the Chief Technical Director, based in London. She has more than 15 years of experience in design, implementation, and evaluation of large reform and technical assistance programs to improve public sector performance and strengthen civil society.

Nastase has held leadership and senior advisory roles for multi-million technical assistance programs funded by World Bank, European Commission, World Food Programme, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, United Nations Development Program, and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

She worked on improving public service delivery and strategic management at national or federal level, as well as supporting regional and local governments. She also worked on developing capacity strengthening approaches for health system strengthening climate change, women empowerment and food security and nutrition programmes.

In her role, she works with other Senior Directors to design, test, and apply innovative, evidence-based, and interdisciplinary approaches to development challenges for measurable, sustainable, and equitable impact. She leads or supports engagements with key clients as well as thought leadership initiatives.

As part of the Abt Britain Executive, she is also responsible for strategy and growth, working with and leading technical experts to ensure excellence in Abt’s programs and identify opportunities for technical innovations in strategic areas.

Before joining Abt, Nastase served as director of a small international development consultancy, Shift Initiative Consulting, where she was the governance team leader on projects with the World Food Programme and FCDO. She was a senior public sector governance specialist and team leader with Oxford Policy Management, leading operational, capability building, and thought leadership initiatives.

Nastase served as a senior governance specialist and as a policy advisor for the World Bank. She worked on high-level coordination and country strategies, focusing on public sector reform. With the World Bank in Romania, she worked on several programmes aiming to support the European Union accession and post-accession reform agenda at the center of government, as well as across different line ministries. She was also the focal point on coordinating with the European Commission as well as other multilaterals in-country.

She started her career in the non-governmental sector, working with a focus on public sector reform, state building, and national security affairs. She was president and co-founder of the Romanian Centre for International Relations and Security Studies.

Expertise

• Public sector management and innovation
• Capacity development
• Governance in health, climate change, and social sectors
• Civil society strengthening
• Decentralisation
• Technical assistance and implementation
• Thinking and working politically

Key Projects

• Team leader for developing WFP’s strategy for capacity strengthening of national and local NGO partners (Global Programme)
• Programme Director on Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning programme in Nepal
• Team leader for developing a diagnostic toolkit on civic spaces for the United Kingdom FCDO (Global programme)
• Team lead of the Institutional Reform Workstream, Sub-National Governance Programme 2 - United Kingdom FCDO (Pakistan)
• Principal Advisor for developing a capacity assessment framework to consolidate the strategic management function of the general secretariat of the Romanian Government - World Bank (Romania)

Publications

• Nastase A. et al (2021): Building strategic management function across the Romanian Government – a conceptual framework for capacity development, report for the World Bank
• Nastase A. et al (2021) Building adaptative programmes for health system strengthening, report for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (https://gatesopenresearch.org/articles/4-177)
• Nastase A, Rajan A, French B and Bhattacharya D. Technical assistance: a practical account of the challenges in design and implementation Gates Open Res 2021, 4:177 (https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.13205.2)
• Nastase A, Rajan A, French B and Bhattacharya D. Towards reimagined technical assistance: the current policy options and opportunities for change Gates Open Res 2021, 4:180 (https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.13204.2)