Board members

Michael Touchton

Board members, Open governance / By Open Governace Institute

Michael Touchton, PhD, is a professor of political science at the University of Miami, and faculty lead for global health at the institute for advanced study of the Americas. His interests are in relationship between governance, human, and economic development at the local, national, and international levels and has secured over a million US dollars international grands for research work on the field in Kenya, Brazil and other parts of the world.

He has a wealth of experience in participatory budgeting, having done numerous research in the area, and presented research papers in international conferences all over the world with World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank among other international bodies and universities.

Touchton studies governance and development, primarily in East Africa and Latin America, and is the author of three books and more than 30 academic articles. His most recent work focuses on participatory budgeting in Kenya, with the support of the World Bank and county governments, one being on an evaluation of participatory budgeting for taxation in multiple counties across Kenya in partnership with other partners.

Jason Lakin

Leave a Comment / Board members, Open governance / By Open Governace Institute

Jason Lakin, PhD, is a professor, researcher, writer, and manager with fifteen years of experience in international development, teaching and research. He is a Senior Technical PFM Advisor with Institute of Public Finance (Kenya) and a Budget Advisor with the U.S. Treasury Office of Technical Assistance. He has lectured at Zayed University in the UAE and Strathmore University in Kenya.

Previously, he served as a Non-Resident Fellow with the Center for Global Development, and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Budget Partnership (IBP), where he was the Head of Research between 2017 and 2019. He founded, built and managed the International Budget Partnership (IBP) Kenya office (2011-2017). At IBP-K, he focused on equitable revenue sharing, decentralization and budget transparency, where he pioneered new approaches to grant-making with county level partners in Kenya.

He is well versed in areas of Public Finance Management (PFM) and non-profit management with long term interests in supporting civic engagement, decentralized and improved PFM in Kenya and thus will play a key role in shaping the institute’s strategic vision and oversight research and capacity building.

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