Fay Blair BSc (Hons)

Fay joined Global to Local in January 2003, following her role as International Sustainable Development Co-ordinator for the Local Government International Bureau (LGIB), the international arm of the Local Government Association.  This involved feeding into the preparatory meetings leading up to, and including, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg.

Since graduating in Environmental Sciences in 1981 from the University of East Anglia, Fay has tracked great diversity in her career. This covers education and marketing, including a secondment as local correspondent to the British Council, welfare and social programme responsibilities at a Teaching English as a Foreign Language university college, and later work as Assistant Curator responsible for Visitor Services at Canterbury Museums.
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Through 15 years of practical experience working as Environmental/Local Agenda 21/Community Planning Co-ordinator, with local authorities (Canterbury and Maidstone) and prior to that, manager of an inter-agency funded NGO 'green' tourism project for Kent Wildlife Trust, Fay has built up, and contributed to, many local and national practitioner networks.

Drawing on this experience she was seconded for a year to WWF's Local Sustainability Unit to appraise their organisational development programmes for UK local authorities, particularly in the light of Best Value (introduced in the 1999 Local Government Act) and the radical package of other changes brought in with the Local Government Act 2000.

Building on the Environment Council's 'Enabling Stakeholder Dialogue' training, Fay has since completed consultancy work for WWF and other international NGOs such as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). She has undertaken a broad range of high level facilitation and training work for the UK Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales, English Government Offices of the Regions and various local authorities.

From January 2003 to March 2005  Fay was seconded, part-time, as advisor on local governance issues to the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC); the Government's formal independent advisor on sustainable development.

Fay has also completed a range of high profile projects on procurement including the development and delivery of training on the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) sponsored by Defra, in partnership will all the Government Offices of the Regions, and various contracts for WRAP (Waste Resources Action Programme), in addition to advisory work with the SDC and the (English) Improvement and Development Agency for local authorities.

Integrating sustainable development through performance improvement programmes, developing and supporting peer action learning projects and partnerships with local authorities and other agencies, with a strong procurement and facilitation focus, is how Fay's work is contributing to effective governance for sustainable development.

Fay has served as an advisory member to projects for the Economic and Social Research Council and was the key researcher for a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) sponsored project, managed by the Sustainable Cities Research Institute (SCRI) at Northumbria University. Her report, authored with Prof. Bob Evans, 'Seeing the bigger picture - delivering local sustainable development' was published by JRF in March 2004. She was appointed as research fellow at SCRI in 2004 and has contributed to the editorial boards of 'EG' and 'Local Environment' journals for several years

Contact details:
Email: fay.blair@globaltolocal.com
Tel: 01795 530154
Mobile: 07786 307 664