Miriam Chikwanda is a social development researcher and evaluator with over 12 years’ experience working across Africa on evaluation, learning, and applied research in governance, gender equality, climate resilience, land rights, health, and education. She is the Founder and Director of Fructuous Consulting, a woman-owned consultancy specialising in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Reporting and Learning (MEARL), and regularly collaborates with international and local partners on complex, multi-country assignments. Her work combines mixed-methods research with utilisation-focused, feminist, and participatory evaluation approaches, including outcome harvesting and contribution analysis. Miriam has led and contributed to evaluations and strategy reviews for civil society organisations, donors, and international NGOs, with a strong focus on advocacy, movement-building, and systems change. She holds a Master of Social Science in Development Studies and a Bachelor of Social Work, and is particularly interested in how evidence and learning can inform more equitable and adaptive development practice.