Keetie Roelen, PhD

Keetie Roelen is a development economist by training and holds a PhD in public policy with more than ten years of work experience as an academic researcher and policy adviser. She currently works as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the United Kingdom and is a Co-Director of the Centre for Social Protection (CSP) at IDS. Her fields of expertise includes child poverty, psychosocial issues of poverty and social policy, primarily focusing on developing countries. Roelen has undertaken research with and for many international organisations, including UNICEF, Asian Development Bank, Save the Children and Concern Worldwide. Her work has been primarily located in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nepal, Rwanda and Vietnam. As such she has participated in many high-level conversations regarding child poverty measurement and development of social protection programmes and systems, primarily at country-level.

Roelen's work is well regarded by academics, policy makers and practitioners, and has influenced and help shape policies and programmes for children and other vulnerable groups in many countries across the Global South. She has published more than 40 journal articles and book chapters, and written or contributed to more than 400 policy reports and briefings. Public speaking events include more than 50 conferences, workshops and seminars, including a keynote address at Ghana’s National Social Protection Dialogue (attended by the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection) in March 2017. She has also written opinion pieces for the Guardian, Project Syndicate and The Conversation. Media appearances include BBC’s My Perfect Country and BizTalk Radio in New Zealand.