Karen Hirschfeld
Senior Policy Manager for Aid and Development Finance
Karen Hirschfeld is Oxfam's senior policy manager for aid and development finance. She overseas a global team working to advocate for better quality and more aid; programming that centers the needs of women and reduces inequality; improving the ability of countries to manage their own budgets through Domestic Resource Mobilization; and reforming the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions.
Ms. Hirschfeld is a thought leader with more than two decades of experience designing, implementing and evaluating development programs, particularly in conflict, complex and fragile countries throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas. As a consultant, just prior to joining Oxfam, she designed a $25 million governance and economic empowerment program in the Sahel for USAID that aimed to address the root drivers of conflict; trained US military officers in monitoring and evaluation techniques; and assisted contractors and INGOs with their evaluation, business development and proposal writing needs. Prior to that, she served as a Senior Transition Advisor at the US Agency for Development's Office of Transition Initiatives, managing teams and programs that helped local partners advance peace and democracy.