Sofia af Hällström is a researcher with interests in inclusive social policy, gender-transformative programming, and evidence-based policy development. Most recently, she has been engaged as a consultant with UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, carrying out research on age-sensitive and gender-responsive social protection. She holds an MSc in Public Policy and Human Development from UNU-MERIT/Maastricht University and an MA in Sociology and Business Management from the University of Glasgow.
Afrin Aktar was the Senior Social Protection Focal Point at Terre des hommes Foundation for the Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) Programme, Bangladesh. A social and economic development practitioner, she holds an MSS degree in Sociology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and specialises in social protection, child protection, and community development.
Zeina Ammar is a social protection consultant. She is currently working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to strengthen the national disability programme in Lebanon and enable it to fully manage and implement the National Disability Allowance. Zeina previously worked as advocacy lead for migrant workers’ rights and as a coordinator for humanitarian response at the Ministry of Public Health, Lebanon. She holds an MA in Public Policy from the University of Oxford.
Edward M. Archibald is currently undertaking a DPhil (PhD) in Politics (University of Oxford). His research interests include political economy, shock-responsive social protection, humanitarian aid, and the politics of donor–state relations. He has helped design, implement, and evaluate social protection initiatives across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific. Since 2018, he has acted as a senior advisor to the World Bank, with previous roles spanning multilateral agencies, government, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector, including Chief of Social Policy at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Malawi, and Head of the Australian Government aid programme, Sri Lanka. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies (University of Oxford).
Erlend Berg is an economist at the University of Bristol. His main research interests are in social protection, household risk management, and policy evaluation in developing countries. Several of his projects involve randomised-controlled trials or field experiments. He obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics. Before joining the University of Bristol, he was the acting research network Director of the International Growth Centre, and subsequently a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, where he was affiliated with the Centre for the Study of African Economies.
Nathalie Both is currently a Social Protection and Health Technical Officer within the Social Protection Department of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. Prior to holding this position, she was a Social Protection and Resilience Technical Officer at the ILO office in Iraq. She was previously a Social Protection Research Officer at ODI in London.
Meredith Byrne is a Programme Technical Officer for the International Labour Organization (ILO). Her work focuses on labour market challenges in forced displacement contexts. Her recent areas of work consider the extension of social protection, the access of displaced populations to labour markets, and humanitarian–development–peace nexus (HDPN) programming. Past areas of work include climate-induced displacement, gender in production processes, and economic decision-making. She also supports monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge management for ILO programming.
Norma Correa Aste is a Peruvian anthropologist specialising in social policy and development. She is a professor and researcher at the Department of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where she is also the Director of the Anthropology undergraduate programme. Her main research interests are public policy assessment, anthropology of development, poverty reduction strategies, and innovation. Other research foci include knowledge sectors and the political economy of policymaking. Norma has 15 years’ professional experience leading economic and social development initiatives, as an advisor and consultant for international organisations, governments, corporations, and innovation labs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Stephen Devereux is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), where he co-founded the Centre for Social Protection and the Food Equity Centre. He also holds the South African Research Chair in Social Protection for Food Security, funded by the National Research Foundation and affiliated to the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape. His latest book is Resilience and Food Security in a Food Systems Context (2023, Palgrave Macmillan), co-edited with Christophe Béné.
Jessica Hagen-Zanker is a Senior Research Fellow at ODI and manages the migration research at the institute. She is also a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Jessica is an economist and did her PhD at Maastricht University on the drivers and effects of migration in Albania. Her research focuses on the drivers of migration, in particular the role of migration and other policies in shaping migration decision-making and migration journeys. She also has extensive experience in the world of social protection, including extending social protection to migrants.
Safiya Shuaibu Isa is an advocacy and communications expert with 18 years’ experience in mainstream media and the development sector. She joined the public service as the liaison officer of Nigeria’s Centre for Management Development (CMD). She moved to the development sector to design advocacy and communication strategies and influence policy designs for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) and social protection. She is a skilled learning and dissemination event manager with a broad network in the media and development space. Safiya is an English graduate with an MA in Development Studies.
Ruby D. Khan is a Social Policy Specialist working for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Previously, she worked as a Social Protection Adviser for the World Food Programme, Save the Children, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Ruby has 15 years’ experience in cash transfers, social protection, food security/resilience, and gender, with a focus on delivering these in fragile and conflict-affected contexts such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Liberia. She has contributed to several livelihood and resilience impact assessments. She has an MA in International Relations/Conflict Management from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Saratu Kujiyat-Iliyasu is a dedicated and accomplished professional with over a decade of experience in the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and knowledge management (KM) systems. She has an MA in Development Studies and Policy Analysis and a BA in History from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. Currently, she is the Senior Technical Advisor for Knowledge Management and Learning Applications at FHI 360. Prior to her current role, Saratu held key positions at Palladium, Save the Children International, Society for Family Health, and Association for Reproductive and Family Health.
Maria Klara Kuss is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work sits at the intersection of politics, development sociology, and social anthropology. She has worked and published on the political economy of development, social protection, and social and gender norms for over 15 years. Maria is a Principal Investigator with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Ladysmith Collective, working on projects such as the Gender-Responsive and Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP) research programme, UN Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy, and UN Women’s World Survey report. She holds a PhD in Public Policy (UNU-MERIT/Maastricht University), an MA in Governance and Development (Institute of Development Studies, IDS), and a BA in Social Work.
Julie Lawson-McDowall started as a qualitative researcher before moving into policy and programming work and has focused on critical responses to poverty and vulnerability: gender, livelihoods, social protection, graduation programming, financial inclusion, and humanitarian cash and vouchers. She has lived in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and worked for non-governmental organisations, the United Nations and bilateral agencies, research institutions, governments and, most recently, the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) Network. Currently, Julie works for Save the Children UK as a Senior Social Protection specialist. She has an MA (SOAS), an MPhil (Institute of Development Studies, IDS), and a PhD in Gender and Development (University of Bath).
Jeremy Lind is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Between 2020–25, he is co-Research Director of the Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme, which examines the nexus of social protection and humanitarian assistance in protracted crises. He has worked on social protection programmes, livelihoods, and conflict in the Horn of Africa for 25 years. His recent publications for Development and Change, Development Policy Review, and GeoForum explore targeting dynamics in pastoral settings, uncertainty in relation to social assistance programming, and the governance of oil extraction.
Christina Lowe (Christy) is an ODI Research Associate and independent consultant, with over a decade of experience working on social protection research, policy design, and service delivery. Alongside ODI, she has worked directly for the World Bank, the World Food Programme, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, as well as completing projects for a wide range of UN agencies, non-governmental organisations, and donor institutions. Her research focuses on improving outcomes for marginalised groups, enhancing delivery mechanisms, and strengthening social protection and links with humanitarian and disaster response to anticipate and address shocks and crises.
R. Manjula is working as an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Decentralisation and Development, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, India. She has been a visiting academic to the University of Oxford, UK and the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. She has co-authored books and research papers (in national and international journals and as chapters) on issues including decentralisation, public service delivery, welfare programmes, female leadership of panchayats (village councils) and cooperatives, social security, and rural development.
Aung Naing is an independent researcher who has spent much of the past two decades studying social protection, poverty reduction, and inequalities in Myanmar, as well as training successive generations of new scholars in social research.
Victor Ikechukwu Ogharanduku is a social protection and social dialogue expert and an early career researcher focusing on the transformative role of social protection in fragile, conflict and violent settings/contexts, contributions to peace-building and conflict, as well as influence on human capability, social cohesion, inequality, social exclusion, resilience, and social justice. He holds an MA in Peace and Development Studies and is currently a doctoral student at the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
Luca Pellerano is the Senior Social Protection specialist for the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Arab States region. He has provided technical assistance on the design, implementation, and evaluation of contributory and non‑contributory social protection systems and programmes in the Arab region, sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. He is technical co-chair of the UN regional issue-based coalition on social protection for Middle East and North African countries. Prior to joining the ILO, Luca was leading the Poverty and Social Protection team at Oxford Policy Management (OPM) and was a Research Economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) in London.
D. Rajasekhar is the Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, India. Before this, he was working as a Professor in Economics in the same institute. His areas of interest are decentralisation, social protection, and microfinance. He has published extensively in these areas. He has served in policy bodies constituted by the governments of India and Karnataka. Dr Rajasekhar obtained his PhD degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He is currently undertaking research studies on gender quotas, innovations in the delivery of social protection, shock-responsive social protection, and disaster management at the local level.
Charis Reid is a Social Protection Officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO). She is currently working to strengthen nexus coherence and rights-based approaches in the Palestinian social protection sector. Charis previously worked at a development consultancy, focusing on social protection projects, and particularly in Bangladesh. She holds an MA in Development Studies (Institute of Development Studies, IDS) and a BSc in Mathematics and Economics (London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE).
Keetie Roelen is Senior Research Fellow and Co-Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Development, Open University, UK. Her research interests include poverty and social protection, with a focus on the effect of complementary interventions, how to include vulnerable groups, and the impact on psychosocial outcomes. Keetie has worked with international organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Concern Worldwide, performing research and policy advice work in South and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Haiti.
Rachel Sabates-Wheeler is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Co-Director of the Centre for Social Protection, with more than 25 years’ experience working in rural development, poverty analysis, migration, and social protection. She has published widely and worked for numerous international agencies. Since the mid-2000s, Rachel has led many large research programmes that explore understandings of risk and vulnerability, both conceptually and empirically. Currently, Rachel is Co-Executive Director of the Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme.
Jeremy Seekings is Professor of Political Studies and Sociology and Acting Director of both the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa and the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town, and a Visiting Professor at Princeton University, NJ. He co-edited The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa (2019, Oxford University Press) and a special issue of Social Policy and Administration on ‘States, Citizens and Social Protection in Africa’ (2023). He is currently completing two books on welfare states in Africa.
Chantal Neomi Sirisena is a Social Protection Officer for the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Jordan. She leads the research and learning agenda for the Estidama++ project, which works with the Jordanian Social Security Corporation to extend social insurance coverage to vulnerable workers. Chantal holds a BSc in Economics (University College London), an MA in Public Administration (Harvard Kennedy School of Government, USA), and an MBA (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA).
Gabrielle Smith is a humanitarian, social protection, and livelihoods specialist working as an independent consultant. She advises on efforts to strengthen linkages between social protection and humanitarian action and to strengthen social protection approaches in crisis settings. She has advised on programme and policy design and led programme reviews and evaluations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region including in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and Iraq.
Giel Ton is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Co-Director of the Centre for Development Impact. He promotes contribution analysis as an overarching approach to impact evaluation and learning of development policy and practice. His research is focused on interventions relating to institutional arrangements and collective action in agricultural value chains, such as contract farming, collective marketing, and certification. His recent work is on cash transfers for social protection and wage improvement.
Anna Wolkenhauer is a postdoctoral research associate at the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 ‘Global Dynamics of Social Policy’ and the Institute of Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen. She obtained her PhD in Political Science in 2020, based on a study of the state formation effects of social protection and agricultural subsidies in Zambia. Since 2022, she works on rural social change in Botswana and is affiliated to the University of Botswana’s Department of Political and Administrative Studies.