Who I am
"My commitment is to recover the social function of land, improving economic livelihoods to drive change, and alleviate poverty because land is fundamental to where we work, live and play."
Diane is energetic, innovative project lead, able to operate effectively in an international environment drawing on her key competency skills*.
Equally, adept at being the strategic projects lead or embedded in teams as a specialist in land/coastal management, institutional building and gender expert.
Internationally renowned expert in the following fields of specialist market expertise:
- Market economics: Urban land and property regeneration, infrastructure and coastal land
- Natural Resources: Coastal industry, Water rights and responsibilities
- Africa Land Governance: Building Institutions & Land Economics
- Knowledge Transfer: International Leadership 4 Change (L4C) and capacity building.
Diane is focussed, dynamic, independent and inspirational; she leads and manages change drawing on 20 years global multi-disciplinary consultancy experience in technical, policy, environmental and land governance. Her expertise ranges from securing land rights, equality in gender rights, sustainable Land use approaches, proactive land and property regeneration, analytical yet innovative business cases, fostering SME growth and trade, monitoring and evaluation alongside due diligence through to risk analysis, global trends and thought leadership.
After a career in the corporate sector, Diane now works across the UK and commonwealth countries, supporting public sector client organisation’s to innovate in land governance and generate triple bottom line benefits to society to encourage sustainable economic livelihood opportunities. In particular Diane is passionate about her commitment to sub Saharan African, by linking land to economic livelihoods and building institutional capacity across the continent.
*Diane’s Key competency skills include:
- Strategic Thinking, prioritisation, cross fertilising ideas into implementation:
- Creative thinker and implementer:
- Analysis and Planning:
- Leadership networking and communication:
- Performance management
What I Do
Diane’s style is to focus on the big picture. To create simplicity out of complexity, to focus on possibilities and to develop people by creating frameworks in which strategy and tactics pay off. Stakeholder smart her project delivery seeks a customer focused approach and to broker collaborative working with key partners.
Twenty years ago, Diane founded a project management consultancy practice, Dumashie Ltd, in order to utilise the depth of her experience in trouble-shooting, path-smoothing and adding value to complex projects involving land, economic development & improving livelihoods. By helping you and organisations to understand, adapt and if necessary change how they manage the rights and responsibilities associated with land, property and natural resources.
This often involves framing difficult conversations between multi stakeholder groups.
To deliver livelihood improvements includes to: administer and manage land; to secure rights for individuals, micro and small enterprises, or the responsibility to facilitate economic development; the centrality of urban land delivery and development; natural resource access and sustaining common property resources; property rights and environmental sustainability; equitable land distribution and restoring wasted and alienated land; land and gender impacts; and resource conflict
Adding value to complex projects involves skill disciplines in project management, spatial land use planning, economic development importantly, understanding the interrelationship of land between people and power associated with land governance institutions. Specialist geographic focus includes the coastal land & marine interface (ICZM); and returning redundant land and property to beneficial land use.
Diane has earned an international reputation for her collaborative and communicative leadership style. And is widely acknowledged as an independent, experienced and innovative country project leader. Diane’s focus is increasingly oriented to institutional building, and has undertaken consultancies for UN Habitat, World Bank, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and partnered with FAO. A well-known expert in the areas of African land community her work in institutional development & training has seen her involved with Ministries in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania/Zanziba. Through the pan- African FIG Regional Capacity Development Network she has helped Land professionals across twelve African countries. Diane regulatory delivers presentations and is published.
How I Do This
I have three distinct; but underlying connected ‘hats’
- On the property market economy: This is important because the value of what we do in land property and construction accounts for 70% of global wealth. Chartered surveyors are involved in every aspect of creating places where people live, work and spend their leisure time. I evidence this in successful, socially and financially viable project delivery in regeneration and facilitating business development.
- On land governance and administration: Why land rights matters; strengthening and enabling to land title access is central to the goal to overcome extreme poverty and promote resilient societies. Evidence suggests that understanding, clarifying and enforcing land rights can have a powerful impact on all members of society, especially equal land rights for women. I evidence this in cutting edge donor funded projects and thought leadership.
- On Natural Resources: why this is important is that clear, secure land rights create incentives that enhance economic growth and sustainable development. I evidence this in the application of the rights and responsibilities associated with gender equal and secure land rights, economics of coastal zones, boundary delimitation associated with water bodies and coasts.
...it is all about communication: To recognise that communication needs to be targeted- hence the enormous effort I do in honing my public communication and mediation skills, having gained international recognition from government officers/ agencies, communities and grassroots civic society, developers and financial operatives.
Leading change and thought leadership: I am passionate ambassador of societal equitable access to land and resources, in 2012 I established ‘Leadership 4 Change’ dedicated to designing and facilitating participatory knowledge transfer programs to assist African professionals. Consequently, in my designed and facilitated workshops I have become well renowned for my thought leadership, and am regularly asked to attend at International Expert Group meetings to influence policy change. In addition combining my ability to articulate difficult concepts simply, I am invited to deliver key note’s at conference papers, to chairs and facilitates high level panel discussions.
Diane is Vice President of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), and founder and Chair of the FIG Regional Africa Capacity Development Network (2009- 18). She currently serves on boards for the Governing Council of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), having previously served on a number of boards including the UN Habitat Advisory Group on Gender Initiatives. She is also a regular attendee on expert group panels allied to her expertise.
Working across Africa, Diane has earned an international reputation for her collaborative and communicative leadership style, experienced in the areas of African land issues her work in institutional development & training has seen her involved with Ministries, UN Habitat and World Bank across Africa continent.
Director of Dumashie Ltd, adding value to complex land projects involving spatial planning, economic development & improving livelihoods; specialising in the coastal land & marine interface (ICZM) supporting public sector client organisation’s to innovate in land governance and generate triple bottom line benefits to society arising from building sustainable economic livelihood opportunities.
A passionate ambassador of societal equitable access to land and resources, in 2012 Diane established ‘Leadership 4 Change’ dedicated to designing and facilitating participatory knowledge transfer programs to assist African professionals.
She holds a Doctorate in Land Policy Planning & Integrated Coastal Area Management and a BSc degree in Land & Property Management. She is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a member of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).