Barton Tom

Dr. Tom Barton is a researcher, evaluator, author, social/community development specialist, medical anthropologist, and physician.

After 15 years as a practicing and teaching clinician, Tom made a major career shift, starting by studying medical anthropology, then working for five years as a technical advisor to a national research capacity building programme at Makerere University in Kampala. At the beginning of 1995, he became a freelance consultant and senior partner in the Creative Research and Evaluation Centre (CRC), Uganda.

Tom is an internationally recognised and published expert in monitoring and evaluation, as well as participatory and capacity building approaches to research, programme and project design and strategic planning. He also works in the areas of community health, gender, reproductive health and sexuality, traditional medicine, environment, organisational strengthening and knowledge management, social development and participation.

He has strong skills in group work, facilitating participatory workshops of various kinds with groups of up to 100 persons. He has led national scale research projects, with particular strengths in qualitative and participatory research, and capacity building for research. He has also participated in or led sector-wide and organisation-wide assessments at national and international levels.

Tom is an international consultant, with experience in 28 countries, mostly in Africa, but also in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. Based in Kampala since 1989, Tom has special knowledge of Uganda, but he has also done consulting and/or research work in 18 other sub-Saharan African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia (South Somalia, Somaliland, & Puntland), South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In addition, Tom has carried out consulting work in Georgia (Caucasus), Iran, Kosovo, and Palestine, plus assignments in Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the USA.