On 10 April 2013, Patricia Rainey joined the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to be ILRI’s program support coordinator for the CGIAR research programs on Livestock and Fish and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). Rainey, a South African, has strong program management skills and a particular interest in research methods for development.

As program support coordinator, she will work closely with the head of development partnerships, value chain coordinators, theme leaders, and key finance, human resources and administration personnel at the partner CGIAR centres to successfully administer activities in both CGIAR research programs.

Rainey is a sociologist with a master’s degree in evaluation from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Before earning her master’s degree, she was a practising sociologist, working on feasibility studies, baseline surveys and evaluations in the area of rural development. Since then, she has worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supporting work planning, budgeting, performance monitoring and reporting in Guinea and Ghana, and she managed a USAID-funded monitoring and evaluation project in Nigeria. Most recently, she managed a similar project in Uganda for 4 years where she provided performance management support to USAID and 40 implementing partners.

She is based at the ILRI offices in Nairobi. Away from work, she enjoys horse riding and keeps four horses.