Youth and Work in the Global South

Dame Barbara Stocking

Co-convenor, Commission on Young People and Work

Former President of Murray Edwards College and Distinguished Associate of Darwin College

In addition to Barbara’s College responsibilities, Barbara is also a Trustee of the Gates Cambridge Trust, Deputy Chair of the Cambridge Trust, and previously was Chair of the Faculty Board of Human, Social and Political Sciences. Externally to Cambridge she was the Chair of the Trustees of Blueprint for Better Business. In 2015 she was appointed Chair of an Independent Panel of Experts to assess WHO’s response in the Ebola outbreak. The report was published in July 2015. Barbara is now a Chair of a Panel for a Global Public Health Convention.

Prior to taking up the post of President at Murray Edwards College, Barbara was Chief Executive of Oxfam from May 2001 until February 2013. During this time she led major humanitarian responses. On campaigning, Barbara led Oxfam’s work on Make Poverty History, and more recently their work on climate change and the current Grow campaign on food justice in a resource constrained world. Barbara regularly spoke at major global meetings, eg. Davos, World Economic Forum, UN, etc.

Professor Bhaskar Vira

Co-convenor, Commission on Young People and Work

Professor of Political Economy, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, and Founding Director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute

Bhaskar’s research interests centre on the changing political economy of environment and development, especially in South Asia; with a particular interest in the political ecology of forests, water, food, wildlife and landuse change and the social and political context for biodiversity conservation.

Professor Pauline Rose OBE

Co-convenor, Commission on Young People and Work

Professor of International Education, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, and Senior Research Fellow at the UK Department for International Development

Pauline’s work examines educational policy and practice, including in relation to inequality, financing and governance, democratization, and the role of international aid. She has worked on large collaborative research programmes with teams in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia examining these issues. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with international aid donors and non-governmental organisations, providing evidence-based policy advice on a wide range of issues aimed at fulfilling commitments to education for all.

Dr Garima Sahai

Post-doctoral Technical Lead, Commission on Young People and Work

Research Associate, Department of Geography, and Bye Fellow, Murray Edwards College

Garima has been working on the Commission on Young People and Work since its inception. Lead by Prof. Bhaskar Vira, Prof. Pauline Rose and Dame Barbara Stocking, she has been managing all aspects of the project — partnership formation and engagement, supporting fundraising proposals, identifying a common research agenda, representing the Commission at diverse fora etc.

Garima’s research interests centre on issues of youth, gender, and work in the Global South. She is especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches, and the intersections between research, policy, and international development practice.

Garima’s PhD at Cambridge examined young women’s entry into non-traditionally female job training in India. The research provided insights into factors that shape young women’s working lives and drew out implications for policy that aims to expand their occupational opportunity set.

Before coming to Cambridge, Garima worked at the World Bank and Oxford Poverty Human Development Initiative.

Dr Anna Barford

Research Coordinator, Commission on Young People and Work

Senior Research Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Bye Fellow in Geography at Murray Edwards College

Anna’s research focuses upon work in various forms. This includes the challenges young people face in securing work, what happens to the livelihoods of disadvantaged groups during times of transition, and the living wages movement. Each theme seeks to gather evidence and build understanding, while also being concerned with how to practically address pressing social challenges.

Anna’s recent projects include an investigation of the climate change impacts on young people’s livelihoods in Uganda, research into the impacts of COVID-19 on young people in Nepal and Indonesia, a study of the growing living wages movement, and research into decent work in the circular economy. Anna supervises ESRC PhD students Kate Brockie and Grace Mueller on issues surrounding young women’s working lives in Bangladesh and Nepal, respectively.