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The AGEE Team

The AGEE team is an international collaborative team, coordinated from the Centre for Education and International Development (CEID) at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, in partnership with the University of Malawi and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  The AGEE project has two national and one international advisory committees..

Elaine Unterhalter, University College London (UCL)

Elaine Unterhalter is Professor of Education and International Development at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and Co-Founder of the Centre for Education and International Development. Her work is concerned with global and national policy and practice around gender equality in education, paying attention to intersectionality, the capability approach and human development. She has led research projects working in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Bangladesh. Her most recent publication is the edited collection Critical reflections on public private partnerships (2021, co-edited with Jasmine Gideon). She is the Principal Investigator on the AGEE project.

Relebohile Moletsane, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Relebohile Moletsane is Professor and the JL Dube Chair in Rural Education in the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As part of her Chair in rural education, she works in South African rural schools and communities, focusing on poverty alleviation, HIV & AIDS, gender inequality and gender-based violence as barriers to education and development.  Her current projects focus on addressing sexual violence with girls and young women in rural communities. She is co-editor (with Claudia Mitchell) of the 2018 book, Disrupting Shameful Legacies: Girls and Young Women Speak Back Through the Arts to Address Sexual Violence. Rotterdam: Brill/Sense Publishers. She is Co-Investigator on the AGEE project.

Esthery Kunkwenzu, University of Malawi

Esthery Kunkwenzu is an Associate Professor of Education in the School of Education, University of Malawi (UNIMA). She has a PhD in Education specialising in curriculum studies. Esthery has published in areas of girls’ education, teacher education and school assessment. Her work also includes the introduction of the Critical Thinking project in Malawi schools and Teacher Training Colleges. Esthery has worked as a research consultant on Malawi government projects and for international organisations including UNICEF, World bank, UNDP, DFID, and Australia Council of Education and Research (ACER). She has experience working in Malawi, Egypt, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. She is a co-investigator on the AGEE project.

Helen Longlands, University College London

Dr Helen Longlands is Associate Professor in Education and International Development at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and Programme Leader for the MA Education, Gender and International Development. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and concerned with gender, inequalities and social justice, with a particular focus on masculinities, transnational relationships of power, and the interconnections between the spaces of education, gender, work and family. She is author of the research monograph Gender, Space and City Bankers (2021). She is a Co-Investigator on the AGEE project.  

Rosie Peppin Vaughan, University College London

Dr Rosie Peppin Vaughan is Associate Professor in Education and International Development at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Her research focuses on transnational advocacy on girls’ and women’s education, and also draws on the capability approach and the concept of human development to explore the evaluation of educational equality and social justice. She has completed consultancies for several international organisations including Plan International, UNESCO and the UN Girls’ Education Initiative. She is a Co-Investigator on the AGEE project.

Eliza Ngutuku, University College London

Dr Eliza Ngutuku is a Research Fellow at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She has over 20 years of experience working on interdisciplinary issues related to children, youth and women. She is interested in understanding the role of children and youth voice in local, national and global development agendas, child poverty and vulnerability, sexual and reproductive health and rights and movement building in early childhood and girls’ education. Eliza has worked on Education Issues in Asia and Africa and as an Executive Director of a leading Non-profit organization in Eastern Africa. She is also a researcher at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a Research Fellow on the AGEE project.

Caine Rolleston, University College London

Caine Rolleston is Professor in Education and International Development at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. He has worked on education and international development in a range of countries including Ghana, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Peru and India, including on the Young Lives International Study of Childhood Poverty based at the University of Oxford and on the FCDO funded RISE programme (Research on Improving Systems of Education). His research interests include issues in the economics of education in developing countries, school effectiveness, educational access and equity, privatisation, learning metrics and trajectories, longitudinal studies in education and development, cognitive and non-cognitive skills development and survey design. He is a Co-Investigator on the AGEE project.

Meaghan Malloy, University College London

Meaghan Malloy is a PhD candidate in Education, Practice and Society at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She conducts interdisciplinary research around the topics of gender, education, capabilities and youth. She is particularly interested in understanding the roles of youth in global development agendas, and how foreign aid policy and globally standardised measurements in gender and education address youth in crisis-affected contexts. Meaghan has over 10 years of practitioner experience managing gender, education and youth projects in Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Africa. She has consulted for various international organisations, foundations and nonprofits, including Education Development Trust, Glasswing International, UNDP, and UNICEF. 

We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people to earlier phases of the AGEE project: Esme Kadzamira (University of Malawi), Catherine Jere (University of East Anglia), Professor Dorothy Nampota (Chancellor College, Malawi), William Nicholas (UCL), Charley Nussey (UCL) and our colleagues in the wider CEID gender community at UCL Institute of Education.

We would especially like to acknowledge the insights from Roy Carr-Hill (UCL), who sadly passed on 21st November 2022. You can read a tribute to Roy and his work here.


UNESCO Partners

Justine Sass

Justine Sass is the Chief of the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO’s Headquarters. She leads UNESCO’s global initiatives to support gender-transformative and inclusive education with a lifelong learning perspective, providing strategic directions and supporting knowledge generation, technical assistance and global cooperation. She currently oversees the Global Platform for Gender Equality and Girls’ and Women’s Empowerment in and through Education, and other initiatives to improve data on gender equality in and through education. Justine has been part of the AGEE community of practice since 2016 and is currently cooperating with UCL on its expansion at country-level geared towards capacity development, cross-sectoral dialogue and systems strengthening.

Matthias Eck

Matthias Eck is Programme Specialist in UNESCO’s Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality. He has worked with the Global Education Monitoring Report, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and UNICEF, and published research with Routledge and peer-reviewed journals. He co-authored UNESCO’s report on boys’ disengagement from education. Matthias provides technical advice and coordination for the AGEE KIX-GPE project.  

Tamara Martí Casado

Tamara Martí Casado is a PhD candidate in Human Sciences at Sorbonne University (Paris, France). She has been working at UNESCO’s Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality Section since 2021. As an Associate Project Officer, she contributes to the design, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation (M&E) of educational projects, supports research and data reporting, and assists in organizing national, regional, and international events. Tamara also supports the coordination, effective planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting for the AGEE KIX-GPE project.  

Cresti Fitriana

Cresti is Associate Project Officer for Gender & Education in UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to working with UNESCO, Cresti worked with UNFPA, UNICEF and organizations working on women’s empowerment in Indonesia. Cresti co-authored research on adaptation of RESPECT framework to prevent VAWG in Indonesia and girls targeted scholarship program for child marriage prevention. She holds Master’s Degree in International Development Studies from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Cresti contributes to the research, project management and evaluation of Accountability for Gender Equality in Education (AGEE) in Indonesia supported by GPE-KIX.

International Advisory Committee

  • Nicole Bella, UNESCO
  • Fabricia Devignes, Gender at the Center Initiative, IIEP
  • Nora Fyles, former head of UNGEI
  • Antara Ganguli, UNGEI
  • Pali Lehohla, former Statistician-General, South Africa
  • Steve McFeely, World Health Organisation
  • Relebohile Moletsane, University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Albert Motivans, Equal Measures 2030
  • Sally Rosscornes, Gender at the Center Initiative, IIEP
  • Justine Sass, UNESCO
  • Isabella Schmidt, UN Women
  • Papa Seck, UN Women
  • Sharon Tao, Cambridge Education
  • Antonia Wulff, Education International

Malawi Advisory Committee

  • Olivia Liwewe, Gender specialist, civil society 
  • Alick Mphonda, National Statistics Office
  • Joel Kanjunjunju, South Eastern Education Division
  • Grace Milner, Ministry of Education
  • Sabina Morley, DFID
  • Mercy Kanyuka, National Statistical Office

South Africa Advisory Committee

  • Jane Bennett, African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town
  • Brahm Fleisch, Educational Leadership, Policy and Skills Unit,  University of the Witwatersrand
  • Janine Hicks, School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Dululu Hlatshaneni, Department of Basic Education
  • Roné McFarlane, Equal Education
  • Nkonzo Emmanual Mkhize, Student, University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Benita Moolman, Human Sciences Research Council
  • Amanda Ngcobo, Teacher and former student of University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Ali Shongwe, Student Activist, University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Lisa Wiesbesiek, PhD student, University of KwaZulu-Natal