Sara Jones is a senior technical lead with specializations in conflict mitigation, governance strengthening, violence prevention, and irregular migration. She has 23 years of experience gained in home office and overseas positions with organizations, institutions, and U.S. Government agencies. In overseas roles, Jones has led technical programming and overseen project operations for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Bank projects in fragile, complex environments. In home office roles, Jones has been project director for over 20 USAID projects across a range of sectors, including work focused on decentralization, public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, transparency and accountability, legislative strengthening, and organizational capacity strengthening. She has also designed conflict-sensitivity assessment tools and conducted conflict-sensitivity assessments for USAID programs.
Jones is currently a senior management solutions architect with Abt’s Chief Solutions Organization. As a solutions strategist, she prioritizes and develops technical solutions that support program design and delivery activities. Jones provides technical expertise and team leadership to project proposals across geographies and brings lessons from Abt’s project implementation into new program design. For example, she guided production of Abt’s operationalized approach to integrating localization across all major phases of U.S. Government programming. In this role, Jones guided assembly and management of a cross-organizational and external consultant team and production of tailored and practical guidelines informed by global best practices, client needs, and Abt’s distinct capabilities.
Sara has served as project director for over 20 projects and capture director for over 40 USAID and other donor proposals. She has also held multiple overseas posts. In Sudan, she led design and management of the USAID/Office of Transition and Conflict Mitigation’s SWIFT II/SWIFT III technical programming, a stabilization portfolio totaling $40 million. In Iraq, she served as deputy chief of party of the World Bank Institutional Strengthening and Private Sector Support Project, overseeing project operations and delivering capacity-building support to the Government of Iraq’s Ministry of Planning. As home office director of the USAID/Egypt Effective Planning and Services Project, Jones oversaw implementation of a broad-based subnational governance strengthening project. As a home office senior staff member, she has led strategic planning teams and managed multiple initiatives in support of divisional advancement.
Expertise
- Conflict mitigation and conflict sensitivity
- Governance strengthening (decentralization, public financial management, transparency, accountability)
- Organizational capacity building
- Localization and sustainability
Education
- M.S., International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology
- B.S., Criminology, University of Tampa
- B.A., Political Science, University of Tampa