Dr Rachel Yates is presently the Strategic Advocacy Lead with the Accelerate Hub, working with Prof Lucie Cluver at DSPI Oxford and A/Prof Elona Toska at the Centre for Social Science Research in Cape Town and teams to promote evidence- informed policies and programmes for adolescent wellbeing in Africa.
Rachel previously worked with the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) for 17 years as a Senior Social Development Adviser, supporting policies and programmes on poverty reduction and social inclusion including in Zimbabwe, Ghana, India and Pakistan. She also led UNICEF’s work on the protection, care and support of children affected by HIV in, New York and UN inter-agency work on HIV-Sensitive Social Protection. Before joining the Accelerate Hub, Rachel was the Director of Learning and Interim Executive Director at Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.
Rachel’s areas of policy and research interest include work on social determinants of health and adolescent wellbeing, gender equality and social protection.
Rachel was educated at King’s College Cambridge (anthropology and social and political science), University of East Anglia (development studies) and University of Sussex where she completed her D.Phil in 1994 on Literacy and Gender Planning: Contested Agendas in the Functional Literacy Programme, Ghana.
