Shelley Martin

Shelley Martin is a gender and sustainable development advisor with a background in women and youth empowerment, inclusive business and innovation, and human rights in supply chains and communities. Her work has engaged local and global organizations in numerous sectors across 15+ countries, spanning climate-smart agriculture, land rights, finance, entrepreneurship, clean energy, STEM, infrastructure, manufacturing and consumer goods.

At Abt, she serves as a Senior Manager, Equity with a focus on Gender, Youth, Disability and Social Inclusion. She advises the Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA), Power Africa’s flagship initiative for health facility electrification in Africa and supports equity work in Abt’s international inclusive economic growth and climate portfolios.

Prior to joining Abt, Shelley worked as the Associate Director for Private Sector Engagement at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Senior Gender Advisor to the USAID-PepsiCo Global Development Alliance for sustainable agribusiness supply chains, and Gender Inclusion Specialist for Value For Women Ltd. She has consulted with multinational firms, investors, NGOs, and government partners on ESG and social sustainability research and practice. Shelley spent over seven years working with various development and human rights organizations based in East Africa.

Expertise

• Research and analysis
• Equity-focused strategy development and participatory planning
• Technical assistance, capacity strengthening and training

Key Projects

• Power Africa Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA) 
• USAID – PepsiCo Global Development Alliance: Investing in Women to Strengthen Supply Chains
• Millennium Challenge Corporation: Lesotho Compact II 
• British International Investment – ICRW Advisors: Gender-Smart Investing Resource Hub

Publications

• World Bank / Value for Women: Stepping Up Women's STEM Careers in Infrastructure: An overview of promising approaches (2020)
• Shell Foundation / ICRW: Practical Strategies to Catalyse Women-led Access-to-Energy Ventures in India (2019)
• UKAID / Value for Women: Innovations in Gender-Inclusive Climate-Smart Agriculture (2018)
• International Youth Foundation / ICRW: Investigating Soft Skills Program Features with a Gender Lens: A global review of education and workforce interventions for youth (2019)
• Unilever / ICRW: Opening Up Possibilities for Girls: Supporting young women on the journey to new horizons (2019)