Ric Goodman focuses on solutions to extreme poverty and vulnerability, often in hard-to-reach areas. He completed a master’s degree in protected area management at the University of Wales, focussing on social and economic development in the high mountain areas of the Himalayas and Andes. He broadened his work to provide goods and services to populations in remote areas, often in fragile ecosystems and environments where people’s livelihoods are inherently fragile.

Since then, he has lived around the world, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia for more than 15 years, working on programs providing cash and income-generating skills and assets directly to vulnerable families, often combined with social and technical support, supporting basic needs and increased economic activity. “It’s crucial that social protection transfers are predictable, so people can rely on them and plan for the most productive ways to spend and invest in their families’ futures,” he says.

Ric was Team Leader for the DAI-managed Hunger Safety Net Programme in Kenya. HSNP provides long-term cash transfers to targeted families and is “shock-responsive” using remote sensed data to scale up in response to the earliest signs of drought, assisting more than 2 million people in arid northern Kenya.

He leads and oversees technical and policy work assignments with DAI’s Social Protection Technical Assistance, Advice, and Resources (STAAR) Facility, spanning fragile and conflict countries, including Ukraine, Moldova, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

• M.Sc. Protected Landscape Management, Aberystwyth University
• B.Sc. Engineering Science, University of Warwick