Catherine Cecil is an attorney and governance specialist with more than 30 years of experience across Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ukraine, and the United States. In Bangladesh, she served as Chief of Party for the UK-funded Strengthening Political Accountability for Citizen Empowerment programme, implemented with support from The Asia Foundation, which promoted internal democracy within political parties and encouraged inter-party cooperation. She also led the British Council’s DFID-funded adaptive governance project, bringing together government, civil society, and private-sector stakeholders to advance reforms in labour migration, climate finance, and other areas. Through a USAID-funded parliamentary strengthening initiative, she supported public committee hearings, including a landmark oversight hearing following the Rana Plaza factory collapse, and helped establish multiparty parliamentary groups addressing women’s issues, population management, and other policy priorities.
During 14 years in Cambodia, Ms. Cecil led national and regional initiatives connecting civil society organisations with parliamentarians and strengthening access to information, advocacy, accountability, and anti-corruption efforts. Her work included the Access for All project, the ASEAN Parliamentary-Civic Partnership to Combat Corruption, and the Cambodian Civil Society Strengthening Project. She also supported civil society advocacy on gender equality and worked with UN Women on barriers facing women peacekeepers, parliamentary oversight of violence against women, and efforts to establish a peace museum. Ms. Cecil began her legal career at the Massachusetts State Senate, focusing on the state budget and priority legislation. She later served as Director of Public Policy at Project Bread, where she led a successful campaign to strengthen support for children facing hunger. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.
