Maria is a Knowledge Management Consultant in the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) Division of the African Development Bank (AfDB). Before joining IDEV, Maria served as a Communication Officer at the Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit (BMAU) of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Uganda. She also worked for the Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences, The New Vision, and the Uganda Media Centre.
Maria has over 10 years’ experience in communication, public relations, knowledge management and stakeholder engagement. In her role at BMAU, Maria led the formulation and implementation of communication and outreach strategies biased towards fostering engagement with policymakers, implementers, and other stakeholders to better influence the planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring of development initiatives in a bid to achieve better service delivery.
She holds a Master of Philosophy in Media Studies from the University of Oslo, Norway; a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute; and a Bachelor of Mass Communication from Makerere University. She has also undertaken various trainings in strategic communication; gender and equity budgeting and monitoring; and programme-based budgeting. As an advocate for volunteerism, Maria is a passionate member of Rotary.