Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa

Dr Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa’s research interests focus firstly on transboundary governance, of both land and people.

She is interested in understanding what drives change in complex social and ecological systems, and which tools can best help us understand these changes.

The second focus is on building contextually relevant evaluation approaches, and how evaluation can be a tool to align institutional practice with values systems and developmental objectives.

She holds a PhD in migration and displacement from the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration and Society. She received an MA from the same institution, a BA from Wellesley college in international relations and French, and a postgraduate diploma from the University of Stellenbosch in monitoring and evaluation. She is also the research director at the School of Governance.

She has worked as an evaluator in civil society, with Resilient Waters evaluating efforts to foster climate resilience in the Okavango and Limpopo river basins, as well as establishing learning systems with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. She also worked with the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results, supporting efforts to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems within public sector institutions across the region through peer learning.