Résumé for Research and Innovation

I have a record of successfully leading research projects to produce policy impact. In my highly-cited portfolio of research on COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, I co-led the design, data collection, data management, analysis, writing, and dissemination of findings. My leadership ensured that connections were forged with policymakers to effect policy change.

These studies originated from my advisory role to the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). When COVID-19 hit, GoSL was struggling to develop its response due to a lack of reliable data. I co-led the development of a system to regularly collect reliable information about COVID-19 as the pandemic unfolded. This tool was converted into an open-access, user-friendly dashboard and used to produce weekly bulletins and policy reports.

It became the main data source behind GoSL’s COVID-19 response and was advertised as “best practice”, inspiring research groups in nine countries to establish similar initiatives. This source also shed light on the COVID-19’s impact on living standards, mental health, and gender inequality.

Following this, I started a project conducting multi-country surveys on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 15 survey samples, covering 10 Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa and South America, Russia, and the United States (N= 44,260). My co-authors and I found that willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine was higher in LMICs than in HICs – findings that countered the narrative that low uptake in LMICs resulted from hesitancy. We argued that access was a greater constraint, informed by living and working in Sierra Leone, where poor rural road infrastructure clearly limited uptake more than anti-vaccination sentiment.

To demonstrate this, we designed an experiment, where we showed that mobile vaccination teams increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake sevenfold within 48-hour visits to rural communities. I engaged with a diverse group of stakeholders throughout, including the Expanded Programme on Immunisation at the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone, the WHO and UNICEF regional offices, and GAVI.

My work has been possible through substantial fundraising efforts and collaboration with an international and interdisciplinary team of academics, policymakers, and practitioners.

I have been responsible for the management of several research teams, setting up and managing the infrastructure – over 20 international research assistants, over 30 national field coordinators, and over 500 enumerators – for large-scale research in Sierra Leone.

Through my leadership, these research groups laid the foundations for new ideas and collaborations. Several are with former Research Assistants, who I have supported to enter PhD programmes in top institutions and with whom I co-author. I also mentor and co-author with other junior colleagues, such as Sierra Leone-based field coordinators, who I have supported to further their studies.

Besides research, I have taught courses and co-supervised both MSc theses and Ph.D. students. I find it gratifying when feedback or concepts I share when teaching develop into research ideas and projects. Since 2022, I have worked with Ph.D. students from Stanford University, the Paris School of Economics, and the University of Mannheim as a mentor and co-author, supporting them in developing their research projects and raising research funding.

My collaborations extend beyond academia. I have been an advisor to GoSL and have established partnerships with colleagues working on implementation in organisations such as the UN and other NGOs. My broad list of co-authors demonstrates my effort to include colleagues outside of academia, recognising their roles in generating findings and supporting them to use findings to inform implementation.

At the University of Oxford, I am continuing to work through the Research Engagement and Impact teams to strengthen connections within the University and beyond.

The contributions that are most important to me are those that promote inclusion and research excellence. I contribute to the discipline as a frequent referee for multiple journals. Rather than simply accept or reject manuscripts, I provide constructive feedback to peers on how their work could be improved.

Scholars from LICs are often excluded from the discipline, resulting in lost talent. To improve inclusion, since 2022, I have been a member of the scientific committee for the Summer School in International and Development Economics, organised by several Italian Universities. My main contribution has been establishing scholarships to facilitate attendance for scholars from Low Income Countries (LICs) – with over ten LIC-based scholars benefitting to date.

At the International Growth Centre, I served as a Senior Management Associate and a member of the EDI committee. I contributed to developing a strategy to support the careers of researchers from LICs through mentorship and the research proposal preparation. In Sierra Leone, I led the implementation of this strategy, supporting 10+ national researchers.

From my position at the University of Oxford, I am working on establishing a pre-doctoral fellowship scheme aimed at Sub-Saharan African undergraduates.

Since 2023, I have joined the Association for Mentoring and Inclusion in Economics, to which I contribute as a Mentor.

I work at the intersection of policy and academia, with focus on continual engagement with stakeholders to create policy impact. Between 2018 and 2022 I advised the GoSL on Heath and Agriculture, contributing to the establishment of working groups using evidence to inform policy decisions, including on COVID-19 lockdowns and decentralising the COVID-19 vaccination effort. These recommendations are being used by UNICEF to inform routine immunisation in remote areas globally.

Additionally, I work on ‘governance innovation’. Impactful examples include research on internal democracy in political parties and improving municipal fiscal capacity.

As part of the research on party internal democracy I partnered with all major political parties in Sierra Leone to introduce primaries to select MP candidates for the 2018 elections. This initiative led to a 60% increase in political representation in treatment constituencies, prompting parties to amend their constitutions to include the reform.

Since 2019, I have supported municipalities in Sierra Leone to increase their fiscal capacities. In Freetown, the capital, I co-led technical support to implement a city-wide progressive property tax reform, informed by my own research and best practices. As a senior member of the board managing this reform, I have supported Freetown to quintuple its revenue potential. This reform is being implemented elsewhere, including in DRC, Malawi, and Zambia.

My work in Sierra Leone has been focused on creating on-the-ground impact – both within the country and globally. None of these successes would have been possible without forging close relationships with stakeholders and policymakers that share this focus. The proposed research agenda is the result of engagement and co-design with a diverse and interdisciplinary team of collaborators.