I have been working in education since 1978 and as an international consultant for over 20 years, mostly in inclusive education, but including curriuculm and materials development, whole school development and quality improvement through teacher development, training of trainers and teachers and research. My work has involved the development of national policies for inclusive education, and moving systems towards including all children in the learning process, identifying and improving issues concerning girls and gender, vulnerable groups of children including ethnic minorities and children with disabilities or ‘special needs’. This has meant identifying the barriers children face to participating in learning and working with teachers and officials in the system to remove or minimise these, including developing systems for support for children with learning difficulties and related teacher training, and strategies for teachers to include children with special needs in mainstream classrooms. I have long and short term experience in many countries, through funding support from a range of development partners including EC, UNICEF, ADB, AusAid and DFID. I have experience in all phases of programmes including planning and preparation, implementation and evaluation.