Dr Isang Awah works at the University of Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention where she serves as Head of Advocacy at the Global Parenting Initiative (GPI). In this role, she works with national governments, UN agencies and the NGO and FBO sectors to support the uptake of evidence-based, playful parenting programmes, and empowers and supports the GPI national research teams to lead on advocacy for the uptake of the Parenting for Lifelong Health programmes. Isang is also a member of the University-wide Oxford Policy Engagement Network Steering Group.
Isang hosts a weekly radio programme on parenting on XL106.9FM on Tuesdays at 9.20 am (GMT+1). Her research interests include social issues and literacy, especially in the Global South, and she is dedicated to improving outcomes for children and young people. In the past few years, she worked on the development and testing of ParentApp for Teens, an open-source, mobile application parenting intervention that is based on the Parenting for Lifelong Health Teens programme.
In the COVID-19 Playful Parenting Emergency Response project, a collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, USAID, CDC and other international agencies and organisations, Isang led the dissemination of the COVID-19 parenting resources in West and Central Africa. These resources have reached over 210 million beneficiaries in 198 countries and territories and were part of 34 government COVID-19 responses.
More recently, Isang managed the team’s humanitarian parenting responses in Ukraine, Pakistan, Ukraine, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey, which involved collaborating with the WHO, UNICEF and other international agencies and organisations to develop and disseminate parenting resources to families affected by the humanitarian crises in these countries.
As founder of MyRainbowBooks Limited, Isang introduced in Nigeria personalised storybooks that are tailored for African children. She also initiated the nationwide annual creative writing competition for children in Nigeria.
Isang holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge, U.K. She also holds degrees from Harvard University, U.S.A., and the University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Isang is also a storyteller, author of children’s books, blogger, and songwriter.
