Kirsten's writing specialities include writing about budgets, analysing financial statements and procurement. She is versatile in that she has worked on projects in a range of sectors and industries and can therefore also write about energy, agriculture, education, environment, facilitation, hiking and a range of topics. She's generally curious and enjoys researching niche topics.
Kirsten has written extensively on public finance, taxation and economic development. She has also written on anti-corruption and extensively for the non-profit sector. As Convenor of the Economies of Regions Learning Network, she has arranged and facilitated a range of workshops that requires research into the sector as part of the preparation. Kirsten enjoys storytelling and has facilitated storytelling workshops. Kirsten likes all things data and spends hours pouring through spreadsheets. She has enjoyed working on a variety of sustainable development projects and is a keen conservationist. She enjoys walking in nature and taking online courses.
Achieved with distinction.
The subjects that made up this diploma were:
Business Communication: 79%
Economics 1A: 80%
Financial Accounting: 98%
Law 1A: 76%
Business Management 1A: 87%
Economics 1B: 78%
Financial Accounting 1B: 94%
Law 1B: 77%
MS Excel 2000: 98%
MS Powerpoint 98: 99%
MS Windows 98: 98%
MS Word 2000: 99%
Degree achieved with distinction. The modules were as follows:
Psychological processes in work context (Industrial and organisational psychology): 75%
English studies: Approaching Literature and Writing: 75%
Politics as social activity (politics 101): 86%
Fundamentals of communication: 83%
Communication contexts and applications: 75%
Introduction to Development studies: 63%
Development problems and Institutions: 75%
English studies: Explorations in reading and meaning: 68%
Understanding language usage: An African cultural perspective: 93%
Organisational communication: 84%
Projects and programmes as instruments of development: 76%
Community development and the basic needs approach: 84%
English for academic purposes: 81%
Critical reasoning: 75%
Research in social sciences: 76%
Integrated organisational communication: 91%
Intercultural, development and health communication: 89%
Media studies: mass communication and media theory: 97%
Marketing communication: 76%
Development theories: 70%
Development planning: 78%
Engaging with society: Meeting the challenges of a changing world: 87%
Media studies: content, audiences and production: 91%
International communication: 82%
Communication research: 77%
Political and government communication and media ethics: 91%
Rural and urban development: 75%
Development policy and strategies: 75%
Empowerment and popular initiatives: 77%
Writing skills for the communication industry: 90%
A 4 week online non-credit course authorised by Johns Hopkins University and offered through Coursera.
The course provides an introduction to the main tools and ideas in the data scientist's toolbox. It gives an overview of the data, questions, and tools that data analysts and data scientists work with. There were two components to this course. The first was a conceptual introduction to the ideas behind turning data into actionable knowledge. The second was a practical introduction to the tools that will be used in the program like version control, markdown, git, GitHub, R, and RStudio.
Programm: MPhil by course work and dissertation:
Development Theory: 86%
Social Theory: 90%
Data Analysis in Political Sciences: 70%
Advanced Social Theory: 80%
GPNs, Development and Decent Work: 75%
Survey Data Analysis: 79%
Development Theory: 86%
Social Theory: 90%
Economics and Social Change: 71%
In-Depth Interview/Analysis: 79%
Minor Dissertation: 58%
Qualification GPA: 68%
Date conferred: 23/03/2022
With an academic background in Development Studies, Kirsten has freelanced with a variety of Civil Society Organisations including Corruption Watch, Rural Health Advocacy Project, veteran anti-Apartheid organisation, Black Sash and the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change. She is an activist who understands how to use communications campaigns to good effect. Kirsten has also offered several storytelling workshops.
As Convenor of the Economies of Regions Learning Network in South Africa, Kirsten maintained the website, developed social media content and ensured that a regular newsletter went out.
When Coordinator of the Budget Justice Coalition, she developed a website, prepared an integrated communications strategy, created content and ran campaigns.
As part of the Budget Justice Coalition, Kirsten has undertaken a tax advocacy campaign when South Africa increased its VAT rate. To cushion vulnerable persons from the effects of the increase, the Budget Justice Coalition advocated for measures to ameliorate the impact. These included zero-rating certain staple food items and sanitary pads. This campaign has been featured as a case study in a research paper.
At National Treasury, Kirsten convened a Data Technical Working Group which did analysis of tax statistics. Her Masters dissertation used a fiscal sociology lens to look at the reasons for the VAT increase in 2018 in South Africa.
As part of South Africa's National Treasury, Kirsten has worked on a national priority project that supported the policy reform that led to municipalities being able to undertake renewable energy projects. Kirsten has been a champion of the just transition in South Africa.
For World Wildlife Fund, she analysed the budgetary commitments in the Mpumalanga province to determine in which budget lines, money could be reallocated to support readiness for the just energy transition.
Kirsten has held a fellowship at the University of Witwatersrand. Here she did research for the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP), which was established in 2009 as a partnership initiative between the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA), the Wits Centre for Rural Health (WCRH) and SECTION27. RHAP's work revolves around the constitutional right of rural and remote communities to have equitable access to quality health care.
Kirsten's research entailed analysis of health sector budgets and she prepared and presented submissions to Parliament during the course of the fellowship.
As a Project Specialist at Corruption Watch, Kirsten was involved in monitoring the risks associated with poor cybersecurity and shortcomings in the regulatory environment.
Kirsten has been the project manager for a project called Procurement Watch, which is a first-of-its-kind online tool in South Africa. Procurement Watch helps users identify red flags in procurement decisions.
Kirsten is the daughter of a farmer and grew up on a citrus farm. She has worked on a horse stud farm and in agro-processing.
As convenor of the Economies of Regions Learning Network, Kirsten coordinated the development of a course called 'Collaborative leadership for regional economic development in Agriculture'. The course was presented by UCT’s Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice (GSDPP) in collaboration with the Economies of Regions Learning Network (ERLN) and the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) in the National Treasury.
Regional economic development requires actions beyond any single sphere of government and beyond any single sector. As such, there is no single entity responsible for, or with authority over, regional
economic development. Instead, it requires skills in collaborative leadership linking spheres, sector and stakeholders together around a common economic agenda.
Value chains provide important opportunities for regional economic development, job creation, economic growth and business development. Agriculture plays a key role in supporting livelihoods; strategic interventions, from both the public and private sector, can provide opportunities to link agricultural activities to higher-value markets and related agro-food value chain activities.
The purpose of the training was to enhance participants’ collaborative leadership skills and their application in the thematic context of value chains. The training also focused on the technical skills required in the public sector to understand, manage and grow value chains, with a specific focus on the agro-food value chain.
Kirsten has written extensively on finance topics.
Kirsten has prepared press releases for a range of campaigns and projects including:
Budget Justice Coalition
Basic Income Grant campaign
Covid-19 People's Coalition
Economies of Regions Learning Network
Jobs Fund
At Coca-Cola, Kirsten prepared many presentations for the new beverages team. She has also prepared numerous presentations for the National Treasury, including presentations presented to Parliament.
Kirsten has assembled a range of databases including for Moody's Investors Services where she completed a research project, which resulted in the compilation of comprehensive databases for various EMEA industry sectors (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
She has also worked with extensive amounts of procurement and budget data.
Kirsten has worked on several sketcher explainer videos including for the Municipal Money Project and the Vulekamali budget portal project. She was involved in writing scripts that explain complex financial terminology in an understandable manner.
See Municipal Money: https://municipalmoney.gov.za/
See Vulekamali: https://vulekamali.gov.za/
Kirsten is the best-selling co-author of a non-fiction book, which provides an account of how a R1 Trillion nuclear deal was thwarted in South Africa.
She is also the author of a children's book.
Kirsten has prepared thousands of emails in the course of her career. This includes in the role of Convenor of the Economies of Regions Learning Network and as Coordinator of the Budget Justice Coalition.