Saurabh Sinha has a PhD from IDS Sussex and more than 25 years of economic research and policy advisory experience. As the Chief of Social Policy at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) since 2015, Saurabh leads the Commission’s work on poverty and inequality reduction, employment, social protection, demography, migration, health, education and skills, and youth in Africa.

Prior to joining ECA, Saurabh has worked with UNDP in the Asia-Pacific region as Chief Technical Advisor in Viet Nam (2003-2005), Senior Economist in Mongolia (2011-2015), and with UN Mission in Afghanistan (2005-2007). He has been a consultant to UNDP in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Sri Lanka; and Asian Development Bank, World Bank and bilateral donors.

Recently, Saurabh was on secondment to UNDP as Head of Policy Unit in UNDP Afghanistan in 2021-23, where he led the research and analytical work in the Country Office to support policy engagement after the collapse of the government in August 2021.

Saurabh is the lead author of a number of publications both in Africa and Asia-Pacific and at various times has taught development economics at Sussex University; National Economics University, Hanoi; and IIT, Delhi.