Mara Forbes is an international development practitioner with more than ten years’ experience supporting community-driven urban development processes across Sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout her career she has made sure vulnerable communities, particularly slum dwellers, women, and youth, are at the center of generating solutions and programmes to build inclusive and resilient cities. Mara has held positions in strategy and partnership development, programme design and management, and learning, monitoring and evaluation processes at both national and international levels. 

Before joining Trickle Up in 2022, Mara worked as an Urban Specialist with Cities Alliance, a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist with Cities and Infrastructure for Growth (CIG) Uganda, as well as an Urban Strategy Consultant for Plan International Uganda. Mara has extensive experience working for Slum Dwellers International (SDI) where she supported a network of urban poor federations in more than 20 countries with particular support to the East and West Africa regions. Mara has also worked at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Mara holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from The New School in New York and a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and Dance from Connecticut College.