Emma is a SDDirect Senior Associate with significant experience in gender, violence against women and girls, women’s rights, HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH). She holds a BSc Econ in Anthropology and an MSc in Development Studies from School of African and Asian Studies (SOAS) and SRH Research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She brings more than 20 years professional experience focused on research, evaluation, policy and social/gender analysis and training.
During her career Emma has worked with diverse stakeholders, including bilateral donor agencies, UN agencies, international and national NGOs, networks, national consultants and leading academic institutions including the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK.
She is currently a senior researcher with the DFID VAWG helpdesk and an independent consultant. Her consultancy work over the past two years has included supporting peer research projects on the links between HIV and VAW in the UK, Latin America and the MENA region, development of a policy position paper on gender-based violence for Voluntary Service Overseas and programme mappings for Frontline AIDS and Islamic Relief Worldwide.
In her role at SDDirect Emma managed and provided senior research inputs into a variety of projects. They include the development of an M&E framework for gender mainstreaming into research programmes of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, an annual review of the Girl Hub, strategy development for a women’s origination in Saudi Arabia and an evaluation of the progress of Frontline AIDS (formerly International HIV/AIDS Alliance) on the intermediate goals of their international Strategy. She was also lead writer for a 2015 landmark research report on Men and Masculinities in Nigeria for the DFID Voices for Change Nigeria programme and a literature review on access to treatment for Women living with HIV for UN Women.
Whilst at the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) (an international network of women living with HIV) she worked on and co-coordinated small-scale research and evaluation projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. For two years Emma managed the BRIDGE (the Gender and Development Information Unit at IDS) help-desk producing thematic reports on a range of development issues and policies for senior and country-level bilateral donor staff. Emma also spent two years providing social development advice for DFID’s Gender Team and their Equity and Rights Team.