International Advisory Board

Jo Boyden, Director, Young Lives (ex officio)

Jo Boyden's research has mainly focused on children and childhood poverty – particularly in bringing together academics, practitioners and policymakers to develop models and methods which respond to the needs of children, their families and their communities. Before joining Young Lives, Jo was Senior Research Officer at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. She has also worked as consultant on children’s issues to many NGOs and international organisations. She has a PhD in Anthropology and a BSc in Social Anthropology from the University of London.

Professor Patrice Engle

Patrice Engle is Professor of Psychology and Child Development at California Polytechnic State University. She has also served as Senior Advisor on Early Childhood Development at UNICEF, and as Chief of the Child Development and Nutrition section at UNICEF India. Her work for UNICEF included coordinating with health, nutrition, water and sanitation, and education to develop an integrated approach for young children, as well as planning and developing the Lancet Series in Child Development.

Professor Valpy Fitzgerald

Valpy FitzGerald is Professor of International Economics and currently head of the Department of International Development at Oxford University and Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford. He lectures on international finance, the macroeconomics of open economies and the economics of conflict. His ongoing research concerns the impact of capital flows on emerging market countries, and the long-run economic and social development of Latin America. In recent years he has acted as an advisor to the UK Government, the EU, the OECD, UNCTAD, UNICEF and a number of Latin American governments.

Professor Paul Glewwe

Paul Glewwe is a Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and was previously Senior Economist in the Policy Research Department at the World Bank. His major research interests are in the areas of economic development, empirical microeconomics, applied econometrics, and the economics of education. Current research projects include a longitudinal, multi-level study of children’s welfare in rural China.

Christina Jansen (ex officio)

Christina Jansen is Senior Policy Adviser in the Social Development Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was previously Cultural Counselor at the Dutch Embassy in London from 2002 to 2006.

Professor Heather Joshi

Heather Joshi is an economic demographer and former Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London. She was also the Director of the Millennium Cohort Study for the 10 years since the study started in 2000. This multidisciplinary study follows 19,000 children and their families in the UK. Her research interests and publications focus on the exploitation of longitudinal data to study topics such as gender, family formation, health inequalities area effects, and child development. She is President of the international Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies.

Professor Angela Little (Chair)

Angela Little is Professor Emerita and was Professor of Education and International Development for 24 years at the Institute of Education, University of London. She has served as the President of the British Association of International and Comparative Education, as co-Director of the International Centre for Research on Assessment at the Institute of Education, and as Commissioner for the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission. Between 2006 and 2011, she directed the work of the Institute of Education team in the Consortium for Research on Educational Access and Transitions in Education (CREATE). She is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences of the UK.

Ingrid Srinath

Ingrid Srinath is a leading child rights advocate from India. From 2008 to 2012 she served as Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an influential global network of civil society organisations. Prior to joining CIVICUS she was Chief Executive of India’s leading child rights advocacy organisation - Child Rights and You. During her time at CRY she led the organisation’s transformation from a charity-oriented, grant-making organisation to a rights-based advocacy organisation that facilitated the nation-wide movement for the right to education in India. Ingrid serves on the board of the international NGO Accountability Charter, UNDP’s CSO Advisory Committee, and the World Economic Forum NGO Advisory Group, and represents civil society in diverse fora including the UN, the World Bank, the IMF as well as national and regional networks and events. She holds a BA from Elphinstone College, Mumbai and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

Nikki van der Gaag

Nikki van der Gaag is an independent writer and consultant based in the UK who has held senior editorial and communications posts with Oxfam, the New Internationalist, and Panos. She specialises in writing about gender, refugees and poverty. She also carries out evaluations and other work on communications for development, including for DFID, the MenEngage Alliance, Plan International, the Single Parent Action Network, Trialog, and the Women’s Budget Group. Her books include the Plan International report Because I Am A Girl (2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011); Speaking Out: Case Studies on How Poor People Influence Decision-making (Oxfam/Practical Action 2009), and The No-Nonsense Guide to Women’s Rights (New Internationalist 2008).

Jan Vandemoortele

Jan Vandemoortele was Director of the Poverty Group at UNDP in New York from 2001-05, during which time he was the co-architect of the Millennium Development Goals. He has published widely on the MDGs. He served in various other capacities with the United Nations for over 30 years, both at headquarters and in the field – with UNICEF, UNDP, the International Labour Organization, and on loan to the World Bank. His last position was as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator to Pakistan. He left the UN in late 2008 and is now an independent researcher, writer and lecturer. He holds a PhD in Development Economics and is a regular speaker at international conferences and universities. He is member of various advisory groups, including to the UN Secretary-General and the Dutch State Secretary for development cooperation.

Professor Martin Woodhead

Martin Woodhead is Professor of Childhood Studies at The Open University. His main research relates to early childhood development, education and care, including theoretical and policy studies and extensive international work. He has also carried out research on child labour and children’s rights and was Special Advisor to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in preparation of General Comment 7: Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood (2005). He pioneered interdisciplinary teaching in child research, notably through establishing Childhood and Youth Studies as an undergraduate degree at The Open University. He is co-editor of the journal Children & Society and a member of the Editorial Board for Childhood.

Former members

Philippa Bevan, senior researcher, Well-being in Developing Countries Research Group, University of Bath

Charlotte Heath, UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Patricia Light-Borsellini, formerly UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

Simon Maxwell, Overseas Development Institute

Santosh Mehrotra,The Planning Commission, Government of India

Nikhil Roy, Penal Reform International

Kathy Sylva, Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford

Patrick Watt, Director of Development Policy with Save the Children UK.