Anannia Admassu has an MA in Social Anthropology, a BA in Sociology, and over 20 years’ experience in government, faith-based, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). He contributed to the establishment and operation of the first AIDS counselling centre in Addis Ababa in 1992, and has carried out research on HIV and AIDS related to street children in Ethiopia. Anannia played an active role in the initiation and implementation of an HIV/AIDS multi-country support programme on social science research which was implemented in five African countries, and served as secretary for the National Steering Committee. He is the founder and Executive Director of CHADET, an NGO.
John-Bosco Asiimwe, Makerere University, Uganda.
Sowmyaa Bharadwaj is Deputy Director, Research and Capacity Building of Praxis, and has over 15 years’ experience in international social development across various thematic sectors. An experienced facilitator and a practitioner of participatory approaches, she has been involved in various capacity-building initiatives with a range of communities and groups. She has led several participatory research studies, monitoring designs, assessments, and evaluations, and central to the work has been ensuring the inclusion and mainstreaming of vulnerable populations and excluded communities in research processes.
Rona Bronwin is a member of the Department for International Development (DFID) Education Research Team and is on the DFID entry scheme for advisers. Previously Rona spent six years as a primary teacher in London, at an outstanding, multicultural, three-form-entry primary school. She was a member of the senior leadership team and lead mentor for student teachers. While teaching, Rona completed her master’s in Education, Gender, and International Development at the Institute of Education. Rona has worked closely with schools and teachers in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and India. Rona is about to join the Education Advisory team in DFID Ethiopia for two years.
Richard Bwalya is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic and Social Research (University of Zambia) and is concluding his PhD thesis on the evolution of the determinants of food insecurity in response to policy changes in Zambia. He has over ten years’ experience conducting research in Zambia in the fields of economics and the social sciences. He has also been conducting research on access to services among persons with disabilities in Zambia since 2012.
Mark T. Carew is currently a Senior Researcher at Leonard Cheshire and an honorary Research Associate at University College London. Mark is a social psychologist by training, with eight years’ experience researching disability, as well as other marginalised groups. His research interests within disability include sexual health care, stigma and discrimination, and the development of robust disability data mechanisms. Mark has published peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and reports in these areas and has recently co-authored the book Disability and Sexual Health (2018, Routledge).
Mushtaque Chowdhury is the Vice Chair of BRAC and Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University. Previously he served as Senior Adviser and acting Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was the Founding Director of BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division and Founding Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He serves on the boards and committees of several institutions and initiatives in Bangladesh and globally. He has authored numerous articles and books on health, education, poverty alleviation, and environment, and has received many awards.
Andrew Church is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise), University of Brighton. He is also Professor of Human Geography focusing on human–nature relations. From 2014, Andrew has been a Coordinating Lead Author leading an international team for the chapter on trends and status in ecosystem services for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Regional Assessment for Europe and Central Asia. He has been involved in a range of community–university engagement activities and has been the Co-Academic Director of the University of Brighton’s award-winning Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP).
Jude Fransman is a Research Fellow at the Open University and Co-Convenor of the Rethinking Research Collaborative; a cross-sectoral, transnational, and interdisciplinary network committed to more responsive and impactful research. Her own research focuses on the politics of knowledge for global development and she has led multiple studies funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the Leverhulme Trust, and the Department for International Development (DFID). Previously, Jude worked for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Education Monitoring Report, and ActionAid International.
Fana Gebresenbet is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University. He wrote his PhD on ‘The Political Economy of Land Investments: Dispossession, Resistance, and Territory-Making in Gambella, Western Ethiopia’. He has been researching and writing about state-building, political economy, and development in Ethiopia for more than a decade.
James Georgalakis is the Director of Communications and Impact at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), leading research communications, the strengthening of evidence use and the evaluation of research impact. He is also the Director of the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative for International Development Research. He is completing a professional doctorate in policy research and practice at the University of Bath. His research interests relate to social network analysis of the interactive processes that shape the production and use of evidence in global health policy. Previous to joining IDS he delivered a range of policy communications and advocacy roles in non-governmental organisations.
Anderson Gitonga is from Kenya and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the United Disabled Persons of Kenya and Secretary to the Caucus on Disability Rights Advocacy. Anderson has been a community development specialist with a focus on disability rights for the last 20 years and has held numerous key programmatic and leadership functions in various organisations.
Nora Groce is an anthropologist, global health expert, and Director of the UCL International Disability Research Centre at University College London. She is known for her work on vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries and in particular for her work on people with disabilities. She is widely published and sits on many national and international scientific and advisory committees.
Jill Healey has worked on international development and social justice issues, in a number of countries, for over 20 years. Her experience ranges from direct engagement with community members to influencing senior decision makers, and she has lived and worked in Malawi and Tanzania. Jill’s employment history includes Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), the Children’s Society, and the Greater London Authority. She has been Executive Director of ChildHope for over seven years and a trustee of RefugeeYouth since 2009.
Rachel Hinton is a social anthropologist with expertise in refugees and equity in education. She is a senior social development adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID). She designs research programmes including the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) and the ESRC Raising Learning Outcomes programmes. She has conducted research in Nepal, India, and Ghana, and taught courses on refugees and migration, South Asia, and childhood studies. Rachel is co-author of the book Inclusive Aid (2004, Earthscan) that examines power and relationships in the aid sector. Rachel is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
Vicky Johnson has more than 20 years’ experience as a researcher and consultant in social and community development, both in the UK and internationally. She is Principal Investigator for Youth Uncertainty Rights (YOUR) World Research in Ethiopia and Nepal, supported by the ESRC-DFID Poverty Alleviation Fund (2016–19). She has recently led research into steps for engaging children in research (Bernard van Leer Foundation), social protection and education for street-connected girls in Nairobi (United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI)), and Youth Sexual Rights (International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)). She has also advised on the ethics of research with marginalised and vulnerable children and youth.
Mubita Luwabelwa is affiliated with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, which is a consortium of 16 member states focusing on bettering the lives of its community through regional integration. He coordinates the function of policy and strategy development, as well as monitoring and evaluation for the Secretariat. In addition to his regional-level experience, he has wide experience at member state-level in health systems development, health-care financing, and poverty reduction, as well as strategic and operational planning for social sectors, particularly the health sector.
Maria Kett is an Honorary Reader in Disability and International Development at University College London (UCL). She has expertise in global health, human rights, climate change, poverty alleviation, and the consequences of social exclusion. She has undertaken research in countries across Africa and Asia, leading on a number of research programmes on disability and international development, and is author of over 90 publications. She regularly serves as a consultant for numerous bilateral and multilateral donors, including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, the Australian Department of Finance and Trade (DFAT), and the United Nations.
Sujeeta Mathema is a development women’s rights activist from Nepal and is currently an Executive Director of ActionAid Nepal. She began her career as an information technology trainer before entering the development field, advocating for women’s rights and explicitly focusing on girls’ education, women’s freedom of mobility, and women’s representation in local governance. She values a human rights-based approach to development from the perspective of feminist theory and community actions. Sujeeta has significant experience working with women and girls living in poverty and exclusion.
Themba Moeti is Chief Executive Officer of the Health Systems Trust in South Africa, and is a public health expert with experience in the areas of health policy, health systems, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria prevention and control, and disease surveillance, with a particular interest in the interface between health and socioeconomic development. He has co-authored several articles in the areas of tuberculosis and HIV, focused on the epidemics of these diseases in southern Africa and use of this research to inform policy and programme strategy development, to support capacity development, and the translation of policy into practice.
Mercy Fekadu Mulugeta has a PhD in Global and Area Studies with a special emphasis on peace and security in Africa, and is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University. Her research interest includes small arms, statehood, and security governance in Africa. She has conducted extensive research on conflict and security issues in the borderlands of the Horn of Africa.
Ekal Nettir, Kuraz Sugar Development Project, Ethiopian Sugar Corporation, Ethiopia.
Kate Newman is co-Head of Research, Evidence, and Learning at Christian Aid. Kate has worked in the international development sector for over 20 years, across non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and in university settings. She links her passion for adult learning and social change with a belief that there should be better opportunities to bring multiple perspectives and different knowledge into debates about what ‘good development’ looks like. At heart, she is a practitioner with a strong commitment to fighting for social justice, but she believes that the NGO and academic worlds have a lot to offer and learn from each other.
Boakai A. Nyehn, National Union of Organisations of the Disabled, Liberia.
Joyce Olenja, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Pauline Rose joined the University of Cambridge in February 2014 as Professor of International Education, where she is Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre in the Faculty of Education. She leads the education strand of the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative, and is Principal Investigator of the ESRC-DFID Raising Learning Outcomes project: ‘Teaching Effectively All Children in India and Pakistan’ (TEACh). Prior to joining Cambridge, Pauline was Director of UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Pauline’s research focuses on issues of educational policy and practice in international development settings, including in relation to inequality, and financing and governance.
Laura Savage is a Senior Education Adviser at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). She is currently Deputy Team Leader of the Education Research Team, generating rigorous research on how to improve learning outcomes for all children. Laura works on RISE – a research programme generating new thinking and evidence on improving systems of education – and DFID’s education partnership with the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Laura has previously worked for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Australia’s Department of Finance and Trade (DFAT). She holds a PhD (University of Cambridge) on the politics of aid in national education reform.
Leslie Swartz is a clinical psychologist and a distinguished professor of psychology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His work focuses on mental health and disability issues in low-income contexts. He was founding Editor in Chief of the African Journal of Disability, and is an Associate Editor of Transcultural Psychiatry and the International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education. His most recent co-edited volume is The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South (2019, Palgrave Macmillan).
Yonas Tariku is a lecturer at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University. Prior to joining IPSS, he was also working as a lecturer at the Department of Governance and Development Studies, Jimma University (Ethiopia), from 2006 to 2014. His research interest is on conflict and security in the Horn of Africa.
Nicola Yeates is Professor of Social Policy at The Open University, UK. She has published widely on global and regional social and health governance, and on participatory research and public policy. Her books include World-Regional Social Governance and Policy (with B. Deacon, M.C. Macovei and L. van Langenhove, 2010, Routledge), Globalising Care Economies and Migrant Workers (2009, Palgrave Macmillan) and International Health Worker Migration and Recruitment: Global Governance, Politics and Policy (with J. Pillinger, forthcoming, 2019, Routledge) She was Principal Investigator of the ESRC-DFID-funded social policy research project, ‘Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration (PRARI)’ (www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/prari/).