A career connecting evidence, policy, and public institutions

Biography

I am a development economist and policy specialist motivated by a deep commitment to reducing poverty, improving people’s lives, and expanding economic opportunity across low-income and developing countries.

My interest in development economics grew through direct experience in the field, where I saw how poverty, limited opportunity, and weaknesses in public systems shaped the choices available to households and communities. Early in my career, I worked in large-scale data collection and official statistics, engaging closely with the people, institutions, and local conditions behind the figures that eventually appeared in national datasets. Those experiences taught me to understand development challenges simultaneously as statistical patterns, institutional constraints, and lived realities. They also shaped my decision to become a development economist and to pursue research that can help governments define problems more clearly, design effective policies, and strengthen their capacity to respond.

Over more than a decade, my work has developed across applied microeconomic research, survey design and implementation, programme evaluation, teaching, and public-sector reform. I have worked with universities, governments, and international development organisations on questions spanning education, poverty, gender, labour markets, migration, social protection, agricultural markets, and climate resilience.

My research draws on household surveys, population censuses, administrative records, and mixed-method evidence. Across these different subjects and sources, I remain focused on producing rigorous analysis that speaks directly to the decisions policymakers must make. I am especially interested in the movement from evidence to action: how researchers frame questions, how institutions interpret findings, and how governments translate knowledge into policies and programmes that improve people’s lives.

An opportunity to work at the heart of national policymaking brought these interests together. I contributed to a broad reform agenda aimed at strengthening how government develops, coordinates, appraises, and implements public policy. My work included examining how the national policy system functioned in practice, developing common standards and practical tools, supporting policy analysis, training public officials, and designing digital decision tools for policymakers.

My longer-term purpose is to strengthen the relationship between evidence, public policy, and state capacity. I want my work to contribute to institutions that can diagnose development challenges with greater clarity, make better decisions, and deliver more effectively for the people they serve.