Policy

I aim to make my policy work both academically rigorous and practically useful. I hope to help bridge academia and policy in a useful way. A summary of my policy work is below, and you are welcome to contact me if you have any questions or are involved in the public sphere and would like to work together.

I believe we live in an incredible time. Our actions today will determine the fate of our climate, our oceans, and of the poorest people in the world. Everyone has a role to play in moving us away from a future scarred by the past rather than nourished by it. Play your part in every way you can.

My main research agenda revolves around the capacity to deliver public goods to poor people in the developing world. However, implementing the findings of service delivery research offer a fresh set of challenges. My aim is to integrate frontier research findings from the literature on service delivery to the implementation of policy in the developing world.

Civil Service Reform

A key part of my work is collaborating with senior executives of the civil service on how to improve the way their civil services function.  From 2005 to 2011, I was an economist in the Presidency of Nigeria, working on improved monitoring and evaluation of public projects, intergovernmental grant systems that incentivised the delivery of services, civil service reform, and so on.

I work with the Head of the Civil Service of Ghana on the country's civil service reform programme.  More recently I have started work with the Civil Service Agency of Liberia on their reform agenda and Ethiopia's Ministry of Civil Service on better understanding the experience of working in the civil service.

Local Government Reform

In the United Kingdom, I work with Lambeth Local Council on the design of their Street Champions Scheme.  Together, we have undertaken research to identify the best means for public officials and Lambeth residents to co-produce environmental services.  More recently I have started work with Barnet Borough Council's Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.

In Tanzania, I am working with the Prime Minister's Office to identify ways to improve the maintenance of rural water infrastructure.  Roughly 40% of rural water points are non-functional, and we are researching ways to improve the capacity of local governments to better maintain this infrastructure.