Help. Build. Empower.
People are at the heart of everything I do.
Here are some of the research projects I’ve worked on over the last five years (please note this list is not exhaustive). If you want to find out more please contact me.
London School of Economics (LSE) - Links Scheme Researcher
As part of my Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics, I undetook a 20,000-word consulting project in partnership with My Confidence Matters (MCM), a gender and leadership consulting firm: “Exploring the effects of COVID-19 on flexible working arrangements for women with caring responsibilities”.
Our research findings showed that flexible working arrangements can help women to juggle different responsibilities. However, if not accompanied by strong organisational, familial and social support, it can exacerbate gender division.
London Business School (LBS)
As a Casual Research Assistant (and, oftentimes, a Research Associate for longer-term projects) I’ve dabbled in a plethora of projects assisting LBS Faculty Staff and PhD Students. This has not only helped me in cultivating stronger research skills but an intense admiration/respect for all the Faculty who “practise what they research & teach” (special shout out to Michael Parke, who is now part of Wharton Business School!)
The topics I’ve assisted in include (i) diversity; (ii) employee proactivity and employee fit in the workplace and (iii) COVID-19 and its impact on wellbeing.
Aflatoun International,
L-IFT & ING Bank
Life Skills and Financial Education is a must in the world, to better enable young people to reach their social and civic potential in society.
I undertook a consulting project - in conjunction with Aflatoun International, an NGO offering social and financial education to children and young people worldwide, and L-IFT, a social enterprise dedicated to Low-Income Financial Transformation, as a Research Lead to better understand how digital connectedness impacts the financial choices and decisions of young people in developing countries. Our findings show that mobile phones have created new channels of communication and are central to young people’s financial lives, supporting both business start-ups and employment.
Mobile money services have changed people’s perception of financial services (including saving, making payments and taking loans) from one that is based on physical infrastructure and banker relationships to one that is focused on digital transactions and interaction.
Caribou Digital, MasterCard Foundation, UN Women and Standard Chartered Bank
I have worked as a researcher on several Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development projects. It has made me cognizant of the digital era we thrive in and the plethora of activities that digital technology can be used for - communication, business, education and income generation.
Communication has been a central theme for several of my research projects with Caribou Digital including e-learning platforms for learning and communication purposes, social media/app use and trends for women empowerment purposes and technology for digital finance purposes including income generation (entrepreneurship).
These projects have all taught me the multifaceted ways in which communication can be used to empower humans to reach their social and civic potential.
UNESCO-IBE
As a Research Assistant for UNESCO-IBE, I assisted on a Research study funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), focusing on "Improving Learning Outcomes in Early Grade Reading: Integration of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning Materials, and Assessment (2013-2016)" in three countries in West Africa (Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso).
Key learnings I accrued pertained to a piecemeal approach to improving Education proving unbeneficial in the long run. A holistic approach that targets the curriculum (for both students and teachers), the availability of materials (within and outside the classroom) and the assessments is imperative to improving education-related outcomes.
UCL Institute of Education
Working at UCL IOE kick-started my career in academic research (and qualitative analysis). I worked on two projects with UCL IOE looking at augmenting Education levels within the UK.
One project related to increasing accessibility and access to further higher education to “Widening Participation Groups”. The second project was a robust analysis of a nationwide programme (Bug Club UK) to increase literacy levels in UK schools.