Courtenay Cabot Venton is an international development economist, and the Founder and ED of The Share Trust, an organization whose mission is to support community driven collective action globally. She has worked with a wide range of UN agencies, USAID, FCDO, and other donors to evaluate the relative returns of social and environmental interventions, contributing to an evidence base for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to reducing poverty worldwide. Courtenay works to strengthen women’s groups, like Self Help Groups, through building the research and evidence base, as well as co-leading on the Local Coalition Accelerator, an initiative to support coalitions of local and national organizations leading on community development priorities.