About me

I am a sociologist with a PhD in economics, and three decades of experience in international development, the first decade in the NGO sector working on humanitarian interventions and then social policy, and the second two in government, academe and research, working on various aspects of social protection with a wide range of national and international agencies. I am currently focussing on the question of social protection as a mass response to climate change-induced livelihoods and environmental degradation.

I have lead the independent research agency The Poverty and Inequality Practice for the last fourteen years, after working in the ODI social protection team, and work as a research economist specialising in the design and appraisal of social protection policy, systems and programmes in developing countries, with a special interest in public works programmes. For the last few years I have been focussing on the emerging issue of climate change and social protection. In 2022 I co-founded the Climate Change and Social Protection (CCASP) Research Initiative to provide a home for work exploring in depth the implications of climate change for social protection needs, and the ways that the sector will need to adapt to respond to changes in the patterns of poverty, ranging from programme conceptualisation and design, to policy alignment and even international and national institutional architecture.

I also work on the political economy of social policy interventions and the national policy impact of external interventions. I convene, moderate and facilitate workshops and conferences on aspects of social protection and teach on a number of post graduate university courses and government training programmes. I have had the privilege of working across north and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as central, southern and south eastern Asia, with a range of UN agencies, bi- and multi-lateral donors, governments and non-governmental organisations. I have published widely in a variety of media and written extensively on the political economy of social protection, as well as public works and labour market interventions.