Kate Hargreaves brings 25 years’ experience working on practical programme management and governance solutions a wide variety of development programmes for FCDO, national governments, World Bank, UNDP, multilateral agencies throughout sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

She took over the Climate Energy and Sustainabilty portfolio in October 2022 and is leading a new team focused on greening all Crown Agents operations and supporting climate compatible economic development for all CA’s government partners. The team provides technical assistance for climate transitions through skill shares in the UK PACT programme, and is designing and trialling financial solutions for off-grid solar for public institutions. We also lead an innovative verification project for forestation in Sierra Leone.

2019-2022 Kate led Crown Agents’ programmes for Neglected Tropical Diseases. This included being Team Leader for the £100m FCDO funded Ascend programme, tackling preventive and clinical treatments for five NTDs and supporting health systems strengthening in 12 countries in east and southern Africa and south Asia.

Prior to that, Kate was Director for Product Development and Innovation at Crown Agents where she designed and implemented a programme of ‘frontier technologies’ for development. This included smart solar for rural health care in Africa, drones for last mile delivery of emergency health products, and blockchain for pharma track-and-trace.

Before joining Crown Agents, Kate led a social accountability programme in the West Bank and Gaza strip of the Palestinian territories helping citizens to hold government to account in the absence of democratic elections, including through the use of smart phones. She has worked for the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, Transparency International and the Government of Kenya improving accountability across public sector delivery including in cash assistance programmes.

Kate worked with KPMG Consulting supporting public expenditure management in India and Jamaica, and the DR Congo. She led a customer services transformation programme for Lambeth Council and has worked on strategy reforms for NHS primary healthcare trusts.

At University Kate served as President of the Oxford Union Society in 1994.