Over two to three years, students in the taught stage of the programme receive training in policy research and analysis, and developing their research ideas. Students in the research stage have completed the taught component and are undertaking an independent research study and writing their thesis.

Find out more about our DPRP graduates.

Taught stage

Raida Al-Zu'bi

Raida is a Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) specialist. She has over 20 years’ experience at established international development organisations including the Gender Unit at Sussex University's Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Harvard University's School of Public Health, UN Women and other UN agencies. Her current focus is on leveraging technology to catalyse fair, decent, safe and socially protected hybrid or remote work and enterprise opportunities for Arab women.

Salama Alameri

Salama works at the Department of Community Development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, where she is involved in developing regulatory tools to support community wellbeing and inclusivity. With two master’s degrees and experience in policy development across three government entities, she brings a strategic approach to crafting regulations that address diverse community needs and can contribute to building a more integrated society.

Mohamed Dahir

Mohamed is the Global Programmes Operations Director for Save the Children International and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has over 20 years' experience spanning strategy, programme management, operations, finance and risk management. He has been with Save the Children for 15 years, progressing through various levels of leadership, from a field office role to a Country Senior Management Team, then to the Regional Office, and currently serving in the Global Office. Before joining the development sector, Mohamed worked in the private sector in the field of banking and finance.

Mohamad El-Hinnawi

Mohamed is a Partner at PwC Middle East, where he leads on digital and experience consulting. He advises governmental entities and leads initiatives focused on improving citizens’ experience through digital solutions and has worked with public and private sector clients in more than ten countries. His research interests cover public service innovation, digital policies and governance and responsible technology adoption.

Ting Fang

Ting is Protection Delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), dedicated to safeguarding vulnerable populations affected by escalating violence and armed conflict. His experience spans both the public and private sectors, including humanitarian protection, support for responsible business in conflict zones, trade negotiations, international cooperation in transport technologies, and research into China’s globalisation. He has worked in China, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Yemen, Switzerland, Zambia and Malawi.

Aurelie Gremaud-Laforet

Aurelie has extensive experience in Integrity, Ethics and Safeguarding, including setting-up organisational safeguarding standards and frameworks, case management and capacity development for national and international organisations. She is a trained investigator and a trainer of investigators. She has worked with a variety of INGOs, local NGOs and institutional donors, providing services including sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment investigations; behaviour and fraud investigations; case reviews and appeals; developing, strengthening policy and procedure, developing and delivering trainings; and conducting organisational reviews and propositions on appeal mechanisms. She has also been a university lecturer for 20 years and has several ongoing classes in the humanitarian and communication domains.

Felicity Groves

Felicity is a Senior Manager within Bath and North East Somerset Council, focusing on Service Development. Her role involves leading on quality assurance, policy change and multi-agency partnerships, to help to support the most vulnerable children and families within Bath. Felicity has previously practiced as a Social Worker and Team Manager, both in the UK and Ireland. She lectures part-time across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Cristina Imaguire

Chantelle Jankin

Chantelle works at the crossroads of social research, policy and transnational trade, and has led and advised projects in international development, the public sector and academia. She is the founder of an impact initiative that works with miners, chiefs, industry stakeholders and international partners to establish practical standards for transparency and long-term value creation. Based in Switzerland, she combines her doctoral studies with consultancy work in sustainability and policy innovation, alongside ongoing commitments and fieldwork in West Africa.

Nada Mohamed Hassan Mohamed Kassem

Nada is a labour market economist currently working at the Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council in the UAE, where she supports decision-makers in developing localisation and workforce planning policies. Her work focuses on supply and demand planning and ensuring labour market policies are aligned with the needs of the economy. Nada's experience includes a consultancy role at PwC, advising on labour, social and skill policies and programmes in the Middle East, and collaborating with the German Development Agency (GIZ), facilitating the transition to employment for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students.

Tianyi Liu

Tianyi is a Gender Specialist at UNESCO, where she promotes gender equality in and through education. With over 12 years of experience in international education and development, she has worked in Cambodia, Thailand, France, China and the UK, specialising in SDGs, gender equality, social inclusion, STEM/EdTech, rural sustainable development and youth empowerment. Her career spans work with UN agencies, NGOs, governments, academia and private sectors, where she has led research, program management, and policy advocacy for girls' education and women's empowerment.

Alby Luguterah

Alby works as a Strategic Manager for a Trust in England, where she has been involved in improving outcomes for children and improving practice and systems, resulting in improved Ofsted ratings. She has extensive leadership experience across the children’s services sector and expertise in the shaping and implementation of long-term strategic plans. She has over 30 years’ experience working in social care and has been a qualified social worker for 25 years.

Francis Mbilima

Francis has been with the Regional Service Centre for Africa since 2015, first as Country Programme Analyst (2015-2020) and now Regional Specialist – ESA. Prior to joining RSCA, he was Programme Analyst under the Poverty/HIV Portfolio with UNDP Zambia CO (2008-2014), and he worked as Senior Programme Assistance on Food for Assets and Emergency School Feeding Programmes with the UN World Food Programme CO in Zambia (2000-2008).

Martha Moghbelpour

Martha has worked in the field of rural development and education for over a decade, studying conditions that enable community-led development. She currently coordinates learning across a range of social and economic development activities in India supported the Baháʼí community. This includes facilitating the flow of insights arising from institutional capacity-building within a network of organisations supporting 90 schools. She is interested in education for development, participatory approaches to development, decentralised local governance and youth-led social action.

Wasif Mullick

Wasif is the Head of Operations and External Relations at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, one of the country’s leading policy thinktanks. In this role, he has managed numerous large-scale programme evaluations using randomised trials. He also engages actively with policy actors across different sectors, and takes the lead role in the Center’s promotion of a culture of evidence-based policymaking.

Sara El Namory

Sara serves as a Research Fellow at Rabdan Academy, specialising in civil–military relations, defence and security. Her professional experience spans policy research, data analysis, project management and stakeholder engagement, with proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative methods. Her research interests include the political economy of development, governance and the role of power and institutions in shaping policy outcomes.

Ihuoma Okpala

Lucy Plummer

Lucy’s background is in youth work in the UK, focusing recently on youth engagement in international policy processes. She has led various youth projects and initiatives connecting young people to the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. She works for the Soka Gakkai International Office for UN Affairs, where she engages in youth and human rights advocacy, and inter-faith dialogue and collaboration, including with the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC), UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the Pact for the Future.

Sarah Sharp

Sarah is a policy professional with experience working in a range of healthcare fields including hospital pharmacy and regulation. Recently, she has been developing national policy to support better integration and improve the quality the National Health Service in England. She has a strong interest in how to reduce health inequalities and drive improved public service outcomes.

Mazhar Siraj

Mazhar leads the education team at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Islamabad. He has over 20 years’ experience in social policy, inclusive service delivery, social protection, gender equality and human rights. Previously, he worked in leadership and advisory roles with the Department for International Development (DFID), Save the Children, the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences and NGOs in Pakistan, and completed short-term assignments in Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

John Schwartz

John is the founder and CEO of Soapbox, a leading international design, web development and creative communications agency for think tanks, NGOs and academic institutions. He works with clients including Chatham House, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Aspen Institute, United Nation University, the Stockholm Environment Institute and many more. He is a frequent collaborator with the On Think Tanks global network and convenor of the Wonkcomms Breakfast Club series of events in Berlin, London and Washington DC.

Sabbir Bin Shams

Sabbir works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Bangladesh government, where he supports public diplomacy and policy initiative through liaison with relevant UK government departments and international multilateral organisations.

Abdurahman Sharif

Abdurahman is the Senior Director, Programme Impact, Influencing and Humanitarian Affairs at Save the Children International. He is responsible for overseeing the delivery of high-quality, demand-driven technical support to Country Offices, aligning global advocacy and campaign efforts and strengthening child-focused anticipatory action, emergency preparedness and humanitarian response. He also provides direct leadership in large-scale or exceptional humanitarian emergencies.

Alison Wainwright

Alison is a registered nurse with over a decade of experience in health professions regulation. She is currently the Director of Quality Assurance with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives. Her regulatory career has focused on policy research and analysis, standards development, quality assurance and continuing competence program development. She is also a Fellow of the National Council State Boards of Nursing Institute for Regulatory Excellence.

Research stage

Sharmaake Abdulahi

Sharmaarke is an international development expert with over 15 years of experience in urban and environmental policy development, strategic planning and resource mobilisation. He has worked at various levels of government in Canada and his experience extends globally, working with UN-Habitat, where he contributed to advancing sustainable urban development initiatives. He is a key member of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Strategic Planning Team, where he plays a pivotal role in shaping UNEP’s medium-term strategy.

Thesis title: Upstream policy design and environmental governance effectiveness: A systems analysis of plastic governance in Kenya.

Saira Najeeb Ahmed

Saira is a civil servant who has worked for the federal government of Pakistan for more than 20 years. While serving in the Economic Affairs Division and Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance, Saira has worked with the World Bank, DfID, CIDA, AusAid, USAID and other bilateral and multilateral development agencies on development projects in Pakistan.

Thesis title: Can the recurrent balance of payment crises in Pakistan be addressed through an export-led industrial policy framework? A study of the effectiveness of energy subsidies to the export sector in creating foreign exchange growth.

Majid Al-Ayed

Majid has close to 30 years of private and public sector experience. He joined the Saudi public sector in 2016, where he worked as Director General of Export Enablement and Acting Director General of Exporters Development at the Saudi Export Development Authority (SEDA). In 2017 he joined the National Center for Performance Measurement (ADAA) as Head of Research and Insights. From December 2018, he worked at the Ministry of Economy and Planning, holding various positions until 2022, when he became senior advisor to the Minister of Economy and Planning.

Thesis title: A strategic approach to developing Saudi Arabia’s human capital to support the kingdom’s economic diversification and transformation.

Alanoud Alsawai

Alanoud is an independent strategy and policy development consultant with extensive experience in project management. Based in Abu Dhabi, she has worked across multiple sectors, including social services, education, oil and gas and investment. She has managed large-scale strategies and policies, and her work includes leading initiatives in developing and implementing wellbeing strategies and programmes, community engagement and the Education Ecosystem Transformation Strategy.

Thesis title: Workplace belonging and wellbeing: Exploring the influence of social wellbeing and job satisfaction on subjective wellbeing in Abu Dhabi’s workforce.

Thiha Aung

Thiha is a development professional with over 15 years’ experience working with different humanitarian and development agencies such as United Nations, INGOs and Intergovernmental Organisations in Myanmar. He has been greatly engaged in support to inclusive local governance, poverty reduction, food security and livelihoods, social cohesion, emergency relief and rehabilitation, sustainable development, climate change and green growth. Currently, Thiha is serving as Programme Management Specialist with United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Myanmar.

Thesis title: Operational strategies of civil society organisations in contested Southeast Myanmar: An evidence-based analysis for international aid policy.

Mohamed El Bashir

Mohamed works for Facebook and has more than 15 years’ experience contributing to the development of institutions for global governance of the internet, including work for the State of Qatar and ICANN in California.

Thesis title: How can multi-stakeholder dynamics in Internet governance inform the creation of a global AI governance framework?

Christopher Borthwick

Christopher is an Advocacy Manager at VSO, a leading international development agency that works through volunteering. He has been with VSO since 2013, and is experienced in cross-sector partnerships, private sector engagement and advocacy.

Thesis title: Decolonisation in highly religious contexts: Tensions in Global North policy work at peacebuilding INGOs.

Naureen Chowdhury

Naureen is Head of the Labour Rights Programme at the Laudes Foundation. She joined the foundation in 2016 and brings over two decades of experience in the apparel sector with a focus on sustainability. Her grant-making and social compliance work includes establishing and co-leading the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) programme (2006-2016). During her time at IFC, the PaCT programme nearly doubled in size and expanded outside of Bangladesh.

Thesis title: Actioning Just Transition ambition – whose knowledge counts

Mikaela Cochran

Mikaela is a cost analyst at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she leads cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness on humanitarian interventions. Previously she worked with the Centre for Evaluation and Development (C4ED), supporting implementation of experimental quantitative and mixed methods studies for development programmes. She also served for five years as a senior quantitative researcher at Compassion International.

Thesis title: How (mis)alignments in perception of complex humanitarian contexts affect coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness of humanitarian aid, using a case study of anticipatory action.

Natalie Corbett

Natalie is Head of Policy Professionalism and Ministerial Advice at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), working in partnership with HM Treasury to drive excellence in tax and customs policymaking. Natalie has previously worked in a range of policy design, analysis and implementation roles across the UK Civil Service, including at HMRC, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education.

Thesis title: A qualitative exploration of the role of HMRC Senior Civil Servants in tax and customs policymaking.

Mathew Crawley

Mathew has worked within the bereavement services profession for 30 years. His current working role as the Chief Executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management allows him to operate strategically in order to provide education, training and guidance for professionals working within cemetery and crematoria settings while advocating for policy and regulation within this same space.

Thesis title: Criminality in death: A framework for funerary provisions in England and Wales.

Mohamed Elimam

Mohamed is a senior policy consultant with Kearney, a global strategy house. Based in the UAE, he is part of the Government and Economic Development – Human Capital team working with government bodies, sectoral regulators and academic institutions across the Middle East to design and launch labour market reforms, assess and update education policies and develop national and sector-specific human capital development strategies. He has previously worked with the Government of Egypt on Vision 2030 and engaging youth on the sustainable development agenda.

Thesis title: The impact of GenAI on hiring demand in Saudi Arabia’s professional services sector.

Heba Al Fara

Heba works as a senior specialist in knowledge management at Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organisation working in education, research and community development. Through her role, Heba provides critical analysis and subject matter expertise on core thematic areas such as progressive education and social progress, improving knowledge transfer, value-add and information management flows between internal and external stakeholders. Her previous experience includes researching and promoting evidence-based social policies and programs to serve and protect the family and its members.

Thesis title: Exploring the implementation of Qatar’s humanitarian aid policy through the lens of development brokers on the ground.

Shaun Finnetty

Shaun is an independent management consultant and development evaluator based in Belize, Central America. His professional work has included performance measurement, human resource management and organisational governance. He currently works at the Belize Social Investment Fund.

Thesis title: Nudging, judging, or is it fudging? An enquiry into the origin, evolution and effectiveness of judicial performance management systems in small developing democratic states, based on the case of the JURIST project in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Andrew Fyfe

Andrew is Head of Evaluation at the UN Capital Development Fund. He is responsible for external evaluations, for embedding evaluation within the programme cycle and for developing new evaluation tools – including for better measurement of policy performance.

Thesis title: A review of the evolution of ODA evaluation systems for assessing the mobilisation of transformative private sector finance under the SDGs up to 2022.

Georges Ghali

Georges is an analyst for the Syria Women’s Peace and Security Programme, managed by UN Women, where he specialises in delivering support for women's engagement in the political process and developing peacebuilding programmes. Prior to his current role, Georges served as the Regional Humanitarian Campaigns Coordinator for Oxfam International, leading their policy and advocacy initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa region, specifically focusing on Yemen and Syria.

Thesis title: Reintegration negotiations in Northeast Syria: Incremental approaches to transition from self-governance.

Wesley Hughes

Wes is a former civil servant with extensive international experience in developing and executing national security strategy, policy and operations. Recently, Wes transitioned away from the civil service and returned to the health sector as a teacher practitioner and mentor with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He is also the co-founder of Crucible Consulting.

Thesis title: How can systems mapping be employed to identify and evaluate the interrelated policy challenges and stakeholder dynamics influencing AMR management in CF patients in the UK?

Giorgia Iacopini

Giorgia is a Principal Researcher and Consultant at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR), an independent, not-for-profit, social science organisation specialising in evaluation, applied research and organisational consultancy. Giorgia works extensively and regularly with the public sector in the UK (including central and local government and community and voluntary sectors) and the EU undertaking impact and process evaluations, with a particular interest in theory-based evaluation approaches and qualitative research methods.

Thesis title: Tensions between generating evidence and making value judgements in professional evaluation practice.

Grace Igweta

Grace currently works as a regional evaluation officer for the World Food Programme (WFP), based in South Africa, supporting WFP country offices across the Southern Africa Region in commissioning, managing and using independent evaluations, and doing so in partnership with government institutions and other United Nations agencies.

Thesis title: Public policymaking as creative struggle between the governing and the governed: Towards a conversational policy framework.

Dana Ghassan Al Kahlout

Dana is the Advocacy Manager of the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI). She has over ten years’ experience in family research and policy, with a focus on marital and parenting educational programmes, family policies, the Sustainable Development Goals and international cooperation.

Thesis title: The intergenerational transmission of parenting styles in the state of Qatar.

Cathy Kamau

Cathy is a consultant, trainer and executive leadership administration professional based in Geneva. She has extensive UN experience, including working directly for the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and prior to that for the UN Special Envoy on Ebola.

Thesis title: Building state capability through devolution? Explaining variation in nutrition outcomes across Kenya.

Hannah Loryman

Hannah is the Head of Policy at Sightsavers, where she leads a team to influence policy on health, education, inclusion and climate change. She is also a trustee for the UK Forum for International Education and Training and Able Child. Before joining Sightsavers, she worked on a range of policy issues within civil society and the UK civil service. Her thesis focuses on the integration of climate change and education within global development.

Thesis title: Integrating climate change and education: exploring the approach of global development actors.

Kerri Manning

Kerri is a Policy Analyst in Emergency Management at Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, the Federal Department responsible for keeping Canadians safe from a range of risks such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism. Over her career in government, Kerri has worked with international, national and local partners to advance key emergency management files, including ministerial and international priorities.

Thesis title: Climate change and disaster risk reduction.

Lotus Mojaher

Lotus is programme and operations expert with a background in public policy and management. In her work with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Aspire Muscat Institute, Lotus focused on developing and implementing projects related to rural development, food systems and organisational transformation. With a strong commitment to gender equality, policy development and hands-on fieldwork, Lotus is driven by a genuine desire to contribute to the development of her home country, Oman.

Thesis title: Reframing participation: women’s pathways to civic engagement in the Sultanate of Oman.

Abdelmalik Muhummed

Abdelmalik is a labour economist with extensive experience in economic and employment policy across diverse regional contexts. He currently serves as the Employment and Labour Market Specialist for the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, where he provides technical and advisory support to 22 countries and territories. Prior to this role, Abdelmalik was the ILO’s Labour Economist in both Somalia and Uganda, and he has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization, Development Alternatives Inc., Silatech, and Adam Smith International.

Thesis title: Navigating triple shocks: essays in labour economics on Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and labour migration.

Christine Mwaura

Christine is Director of Executive Education at the Strathmore Institute for Public Policy and Governance in Nairobi.

Thesis title: Kenya’s basic education curriculum framework: Perspectives and experiences from Kenyan young children and their parents.

Mags Patten

Mags is Executive Director for Public Policy and Communication at Arts Council England. Her areas of policy responsibility include workforce development and leadership within the cultural sector, and the role of art and culture in promoting health and wellbeing. Her communication role is to shape the organisation’s narrative, and to understand the needs and perceptions of its stakeholders and audiences.

Thesis title: UK culture sector leaders want to be more inclusive. How is leadership communication related to this aim understood by followers?

Wassim Said

Wassim is a Consultant at the Prime Minister’s Office of the United Arab Emirates. He has extensive prior experience at federal and state government agencies in the Levant and the Gulf across various policy areas, including green economy, trade, defence, food security and sustainable development.

Thesis title: How can state digitisation provide a way out of Lebanon’s socioeconomic collapse? A public policy mission towards instating governance (and developing a new economic model).

Marale Sande

Marale is a civil servant with 13 years’ experience in public policy and legislation. As a principal research and policy analyst with a keen interest in social policy, she works as a technical backstop for MPs and House Committees of the Parliament of Kenya. Since 2015, she has worked closely with national, regional and international policy thinktanks to drive the agenda for increased evidence uptake among parliamentarians. She was instrumental in developing the concept and establishment of the Parliamentary Caucus on Evidence-Informed Decision-Making (PC-EIDM), an MP-led evidence advocacy platform.

Thesis title: A systems approach to explaining intergovernmental relations influence on policymaking in Kenya: Case of the Health Facility Improvement policy and law

Jonas Schriegel

Jonas works in the field of capital markets compliance and regulation at SMBC Group in Frankfurt, Germany. Before joining SMBC, he worked for Deloitte, GIZ, the German American Chamber of Commerce California and Commerzbank, in Frankfurt, New York, New Delhi and San Diego. His current work focuses on a range of topics related to financial crime and regulatory compliance, while in his previous positions he also covered IT transformation, IT governance and SME Finance.

Thesis title: Strategic autonomy in the European financial system: A geoeconomic examination of dependency risks and regulatory policy in a post-Brexit era.

Joachim Schmitz

Joachim is a Policy Officer in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, where he works on the challenges that Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) poses for industry. He has also worked on regulation of the chemical industry, vocational and educational training, and (with ILO in Geneva) social and labour market policies for poverty reduction.

Thesis title: The influence of regulatory frameworks on green energy procurement of energy-intensive companies over the next ten years.

Sabrina Segal

Sabrina is Director of The Risk Collaborative, an innovative non-profit dedicated to fostering partnerships, knowledge sharing and advocacy among third-sector organisations and funders to enhance risk management practices. A licensed US attorney and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), she has over 20 years’ experience leading and supporting legal, risk and assurance functions in the third sector. She hosts the Tolerable Risk podcast.

Thesis title: Perceptions and Power: using the lens of risk to view power imbalances in the third sector and identifying ways these power imbalances can be addressed.

Nidhi Sharma

Nidhi is a professional consultant in development evaluation, programme research, strategic planning and partnerships. A former United Nations Development Programme staff in New York, she has over 15 years’ international work experience covering themes including poverty reduction, refugees' social protection, inclusive growth, private sector development, and social policy related to women and children’s rights.

Thesis title: How service providers (in New South Wales, Australia) percept, process and serve to the needs of victims/survivors of domestic and family violence, with a focus on crisis accommodation / emergency housing.

Rachel Sherwin

Rachel has spent 15 years working in the international humanitarian and development field, primarily in the Middle East. She currently provides research, monitoring, evaluation and learning services, consulting for several Middle East and North Africa-based development institutions, NGOs and thinktanks on sustainable development, climate change and environmental politics programmes. Her doctoral research focuses on multi-actor collaboration across governance levels and sectors in climate-neutral international development programming in the MENA region and the theory and practice of localisation agendas.

Thesis title: Navigating power, inclusion and exclusion: Multi-actor collaboration and Jordan's energy transitions.

Ghaith Tibi

Ghaith is an urban planner and sustainable development advisor with a multidisciplinary background in the built environment and a diverse range of project experience. He is currently Associate with the international advisory firm Arup, where his role includes advising on and developing urban planning frameworks, studies, policies, strategies, plans and guidelines, with the aim of fostering sustainable development across the Middle East.

Thesis title: Towards deeper understanding of urban economic development: Integrated economic geography framework using critical realist analysis.

Suren C Tripathi

Suren is a development professional with five years’ experience in research, design, technical assistance and evaluation of international development programming. Currently based in Kenya, he has supported a range of stabilisation, state-building and peacebuilding interventions for Adam Smith International in Somalia since 2013.

Thesis title: Working in the dark: Methods for determining aid allocations in data-sparse fragile and conflict-affected situations.

Giles Woodhouse

Giles worked as a professional archaeologist before commissioning into the Army. He subsequently working for Help for Heroes, where he was responsible for the delivery and development of services supporting wounded, injured and sick personnel, veterans and their families. Currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Wessex Archaeology, he is developing the organisation's public benefit services and impact as well as supporting sectoral advocacy initiatives promoting the relevance of heritage in policymaking.

Thesis title: An exploration of how to demonstrate the social value of engagement in heritage activity within the UK policymaking context.

Mohamed Youssef

Mohamed has 17 years’ experience in small business and enterprise promotion programmes in Egypt, both for public and private sector organisations, including responsibility for a programme to replace 100,000 old taxis across the country. He is currently leading the work on international development assignments with both international organisations and the government.

Thesis title: Egypt’s economy and state capability: Past performance and future prospects.

Florian Zabel

Florian has worked on innovation management in public and private sector for the past ten years. Currently, he is a Senior Advisor and Team Lead in the Liaison Office of the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ) to the African Union, based in Addis Abeba. He held previous postings with GIZ in Egypt, Jordan and Germany.

Thesis title: Diffusion of open-source digital transformation: political economy, policy management and governance of digital global public goods.