Alison Tshangana joined CAHF as the Head of Research and Market Intelligence in June 2018. With nearly 10 years experience in the public sector, her areas of interest include human settlement policies and programmes, inter-governmental finance and public expenditure analysis. She recently joined CAHF from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), where she led SALGA’s work on human settlements, acting as a local government sector advocate and policy analyst. She has senior management experience at provincial level in South Africa in both the housing sector and Treasury. During her time with the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Housing, she was responsible for developing Western Cape housing policy, as well as research and information management. Prior to this, Alison spent two years heading the budget office at the Western Cape Provincial Treasury. Her experience in the NGO sector includes four years at IDASA, a South African NGO supporting democratisation, where she founded and led a unit which undertook research and capacity-building activities on budgeting for government’s response to HIV/AIDS. She has also worked with an international NGO based in Washington DC which undertook conflict resolution programmes in the Middle East and elsewhere. Alison obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2000, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (cum laude) and Religious Studies from Brown University in Rhode Island, United States.