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In 2024, the School of Global Development established the DEV Advisory Board. The Board has been set up to ensure that DEV’s teaching, research and employability prepare students to make strong positive contributions to global development.
The Board will advise across issues relating to students’ preparation for their working lives such as acquiring relevant skills and understanding of the wider sector and trends. They will also review research themes and strategy, including how these are communicated and translated into impact.
Please see below for more information about the members of the DEV Advisory Board.
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Andy Sexton - Senior Manager (Community Development), South Norfolk and Broadland Councils
Andy Sexton began his work in global development in the middle of the HIV/AIDs pandemic in Zimbabwe. Taking lessons learnt from working in Australia in homelessness prevention, he pioneered work with homeless children focusing on family reunification. His approach was to train and facilitate Zimbabweans to lead and develop the work. Working for Tear Fund Australia, seconded to Oasis, he then supported the development of child protection and community development projects in 10 countries across the world. He gave expert testimony to US Congress on child homelessness in Africa, and taught Masters level classes on working with street children.
Passionate about developing talented young people, interns that worked with Andy went on to work with the UN and INGOs. Based in Norwich, more recently he was CEO of the Matthew Project working across the East of England with young people, adults and veterans affected by substance misuse. He has also been utilising his community development experience in grant making in the region.
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Ngele Ali - UNDP Regional Communications Advisor for Africa
Ngele Ali is an award-winning communication and advocacy expert with over twenty years of experience. As the UNDP Regional Communications Advisor for Africa, she is instrumental in supporting 46 countries where she steers impactful and inspiring communications for development. Ngele has worked with Oxfam GB (2012-2016) as Internal Communications Advisor and Regional Information and Communications Officer for the Horn, East and Central Africa. Pact (2004-2012), covering countries across East, South and West Africa. Ayton, Young and Rubicam advertising (2000-2004) for several brands in East Africa. She is an Executive Producer for the award-winning “Ngarannam: The Homecoming” (2023 Globe Film Festival Awards, Best Documentary and Best Virtual Reality 360; Official Selection at the 2024 Pan-African Film Festival and the 2024 Soho London Independent Film Festival; Nominee 2024 Cannes Film Awards). She is a Comms of Africa Nzinga50 (2023–2024); Her Network Top 50 Inspiring African Women in Public Relations (2022) and Pact Awardee for Promoting Learning and Innovation (2009). Ngele has an MA in Mass Communication from the University of Leicester, a Diploma in Graphic Design and Communications from the Technical University of Kenya (formerly Kenya Polytechnic University College) and trained in Radio and Television Production at Temple University, Japan.
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Fergus Auld - British Ambassador to Azerbaijan
Fergus Auld has been the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan since August 2022, living in Baku. He joined the FCO (now Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office) in 1999 and has been posted overseas to Bangkok, New Delhi and Moscow. He was Political Counsellor in Moscow 2011-14 and awarded an OBE for services to British interests in Russia in 2015. In New Delhi, 2008-11, he set up a Cross-Government Climate Change and Energy Unit. Roles in UK have included Head of South Asia Department 2017-21; Head of Talent, Diversity and Learning & Development, 2015-17; and Team Leader for Climate Change, 2006-8. Before becoming a diplomat, Fergus taught English as a Foreign Language in Nepal, Australia and UK; studied English Literature at York, 1991-4; and International Development at the University of East Anglia, 1997-8. He is married with 3 children. Studying at UEA gave Fergus some of the frameworks to convert a passion for and curiosity about development into professional skills and knowledge. The DEV grounding in good governance, power, conflict, gender, economics, environment and development practice has been invaluable over a diplomatic career. He learned as much from his fellow students as his tutors.
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Sir Robert Fulton KBE - CEO of Global Leadership Foundation
Sir Robert Fulton KBE has been the CEO of the Global Leadership Foundation since 2010. The GLF was created in 2004 as a Not for Profit Organisation by former President and Nobel Laureate FW de Klerk to enable former leaders to pass on their experience to today’s leaders – and to do so in a discreet, confidential manner. Rob was educated at Eton College and the University of East Anglia. He joined the Royal Marines in 1972 and, in a military career of 34 years, served all round the world. In 2006 he left the Armed Forces as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff in the rank of Lieutenant General. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the Governor of Gibraltar. Alongside his day job, Rob has chaired the Governing Body of the two Haberdashers’ Aske’s Schools at Elstree and served on the Boards of a number of service charities and sporting bodies. His interests include all sports, although he now only sails and plays golf and tennis, as well as theatre, history and hills.
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Amara Bangura - Director of Operations for Journalists for Human Rights
Amara Bangura is the Director of Operations for Journalists for Human Rights, in Canada. He is a journalist and media trainer with extensive experience in community engagement and public service journalism in Canada, the UK, Sierra Leone (his home country), and several other African countries. He has more than fifteen years of experience in reporting and producing engaging national programs for BBC Media Action, Journalists for Human Rights, and community broadcasters. He specializes in reporting on governance, conflicts, human rights, and health-related emergencies, and he is uniquely trained to help reporters tackle misinformation and disinformation. He has established community radio stations for underserved communities, coached and delivered training on reporting and production skills, and is passionate about handing over the microphone to communities to tell their stories. Amara holds a Master's degree in Media and International Development (University of East Anglia, 2015) and was a Journalism Fellow at Massey College, U of T (2014).
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Erica Gateka - CEO of Love and Hands
Erica Gateka is an experienced international development practitioner with a demonstrated history of working with non-profit organisations and community development projects in Africa. As the co-founder and CEO of Love and Hands, she spearheads initiatives aimed at supporting rural communities in Rwanda and Burundi to address local challenges by leveraging locally available resources. Erica's leadership has been instrumental in orchestrating programs that empower rural youth across Rwanda to establish community enterprises by utilizing their available resources. Additionally, she holds the role of Executive Leaders Program Director at Kurumbuka Leadership Solutions Foundation, where she facilitates leadership development programs for non-profit leaders from diverse African regions. Erica's expertise lies in rural development, with a specific emphasis on using Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approaches to establish sustainable, community-led solutions.
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Aurélie Gerbier - Research Officer, EDI Global
Aurélie Gerbier has over seven years of Development and Public Sector experience, working across government, NGOs, and research institutes in East Africa, the United Kingdom and Haiti. Aurélie’s professional background spans International Development and Public Finance, with interests in Gender-Based Violence/Intimate Partner Violence and Women's Economic Empowerment. In recent years, Aurélie has led the design and implementation of several rigorous large-scale quantitative surveys in East Africa commissioned by DIME/World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics. Before moving to the UK, Aurélie worked for several years at the Ministry of Finance in Haiti, where she collaborated extensively with Government Agencies and Development Finance Institutions (Expertise France and World Bank) on Haiti's recent Public Finance and Economic Governance Reform. Aurélie's academic and professional trajectory gave her a global outlook and diversity of experience, which allowed her to form an open-minded view of the world, which she intends to nurture further. Aurélie holds an MSc in Impact Evaluation for International Development (University of East Anglia) and an MA in Government and Public Management (University of Chile).
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Dr. Irene Guijt - Head of Evidence and Strategic Learning, Oxfam
Dr. Irene Guijt leads Oxfam Great Britain's Evidence and Strategic Learning team. For three decades, she has focused on creating knowledge processes to support collective action for social/environmental justice and methodological innovation to hear ignored voices. She contributes through action research, critical writing, teaching, senior advisory work, and strategic team management. Current priorities include learning architecture for systemic change, decolonising evidence processes, and evidence base for honest hope. Her agricultural engineering degrees and doctoral work on messy learning partnerships in agriculture have fostered an appreciation for the science and art of societal transformation. She has pioneered new areas of work including developing the practice of Participatory Learning and Action, unpacking the politics of evidence, and the use of SenseMaker in international development. Recent work includes leading a global analysis of emergent agency in a time of Covid and developing Oxfam GB’s new learning and accountability approach that is driven by decolonising knowledge and making systems change visible. She writes when she can on epistemic justice, megatrends and all things to do with evaluative practice. With colleagues, she has started to map an evidence base for hope and undertake research on how climate activism influences – or not – climate financing flows.
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Dr. Monika O'Neilsen - Deputy Representative of Programmes, UNICEF Iran
Dr. Monika Oledzka-Nielsen stands as a beacon of expertise and dedication, holding a PhD and MA in Education, Gender, and Development from the University of East Anglia, UK. Her academic journey laid the groundwork for a distinguished career characterized by a relentless pursuit of positive change and impact. Dr. Nielsen has dedicated over 18 years to the development sector, working across continents including sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. She's collaborated with esteemed organizations such as USAID, World Education, Save the Children, and UNICEF, advocating for marginalized communities. During her time with UNICEF in Indonesia and Papua (2014-2018), Dr. Nielsen spearheaded transformative early childhood development and literacy programs. Her innovative initiatives uplifted disadvantaged communities, serving as models for replication nationwide. Leading UNICEF's efforts in Odisha, India (2019-2022), Dr. Nielsen managed diverse portfolios in education, child protection, and health. Her strategic leadership fostered partnerships and drove sustainable change, positively impacting countless lives. Currently serving as Deputy Representative Programme in Tehran, Iran, Dr. Nielsen continues to shape UNICEF's transformative agenda. Managing significant budgets and fostering partnerships, she advocates for vulnerable populations, embodying UNICEF's mission of compassion and solidarity.
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Dr. José Manuel Roche - Independent Policy Advisor
José Manuel is an independent policy advisor, senior analyst, and evaluator in international development with over 25 years of experience working for international agencies, governments, and academia. His expertise lies in welfare analysis, child poverty and on advanced quantitative research methods and evaluation. He is Research Associate at the Oxford Department of International Development in the University of Oxford, and at Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Sociales (CISOR) in Venezuela. As a Chevening Scholar, José Manuel completed doctoral studies from the University of Sussex in 2009. His doctoral work received the prestigious 2007 Wiebke Kuklys Prize from the Human Development and Capability Association. Following his doctoral studies, he held a four-year postdoctoral position in the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, a research centre at the University of Oxford. Subsequently, he worked for Save the Children UK as Head of Research. His extensive publications include co-authoring the book “Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis” published by the Oxford University Press, along with peer-reviewed journal articles and policy reports. José Manuel has also taught various undergraduate and postgraduate courses at institutions such as the University of Oxford, University of Sussex, University College of London among others.
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Jack Farren, Chief Executive, Rural Inclusion
Jack is an award-winning social entrepreneur based in the UK. He possesses vast experience in international development, financial inclusion, and edtech. In his current role as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rural Inclusion, a social enterprise supporting rural communities in over seven countries, he leads a team of staff and consultants across Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific to develop innovative capacity building solutions for smallholder farmers, small scale fishers, microentrepreneurs, refugees and host communities on topics including climate risk management, digital financial services and sustainable agriculture.
He is also the host of a popular podcast called The Social Impact Journal, where he meets with social entrepreneurs, academics and development practitioners to discuss important topics surrounding the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).