Dr Keetie Roelen

Professional biography

Dr. Keetie Roelen is a Senior Research Fellow in Poverty and Social Protection and Co-Deputy Director at the Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD) in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) at the Open University, UK. Her research focuses on areas of (child) poverty, social protection and anti-poverty interventions in relation to children, women and psychosocial wellbeing. She is a mixed methods researcher, holding both quantitative and qualitative research skills. 

Keetie previously held positions at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK and Maastricht University, Netherlands. She is an Honorary Associate of IDS, Affiliated Researcher of the Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP) at University of Bergen, Norway and Advisory Council member of the Partnership of Economic Inclusion (PEI) at the World Bank. She is also founder of Poverty Unpacked - a platform for discussing the hidden dimensions of poverty. Her nonfiction book 'The Empathy Fix. Why Poverty Persists and How to Change It', published by Allen & Unwin, will be out on 30 January 2025,

Keetie has worked with many international organisations such as UNICEF, Save the Children and Concern Worldwide, performing research and policy advice work in Southern and Eastern Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Haiti. She has secured £2.5+ million of external funding and has successfully led a range of large-scale multi-partner projects, including the prestigious ESRC Future Leaders grant and a GCRF ECD project funded through the British Academy. She is an experienced teacher and trainer, having developed and led courses for postgraduate students, professionals, and policy makers.

Research projects

Keetie currently leads the following research projects:

• Lively Minds Together (LMT) radio evaluation: Keetie is Principal Investigator for this evaluation research project to generate robust evidence of the LMT radio programme and its impact, and to motivate funders to invest in scaling it up, in Uganda and other contexts. The research is grounded in theory-based evaluation and takes a mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach. This research is commissioned by NGO Lively Minds.
• Overcoming colonial continuities in the area of social protection: Keetie leads this research, funded by the German government, which aims to develop an in-depth understanding of postcolonial dynamics in Africa, and two country case studies of Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania specifically, and how social protection arrangements can be more driven by in-country priorities. Keetie undertakes this project with colleagues across the OU and with partners in Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania.
• Understanding attitudes and countering stigma to tackle poverty and inequality: Keetie leads this research project, which is part of the OU's Open Societal Challenges (OSC) programme. It aims to understand lived experiences of poverty and social protection and attitudes of service providers and wider public towards social protection beneficiaries. It is a cross-comparative two-country of localised research in Milton Keynes in the UK and Laguna in the Philippines (Laguna) with a focus on related welfare/ social protection programmes, namely Universal Credit (UC) in the UK and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P) in the Philippines.

Projects that Keetie previously led at the Open University include:

• Fonkoze Graduation programme: Keetie is Principal Investigator on a longstanding collaboration with Fonkoze in Haiti to evaluate the impact of their multi-faceted economic empowerment intervention on women and their families. Research on previous cohorts has focused on the role of the programme in improving child development (funded by W. K. Kellogg Foundation and GCRF) while current research zooms in on the ability to withstand shocks and women's economic empowerment (funded by Swiss Embassy in Haiti). 
• CLARISSA Social Protection intervention: Keetie co-leads the development, implementation and evaluation of an innovative 'cash plus' scheme in a slum area in Dhaka within the Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme. Together with implementing partner Terre des hommes and other partners, the intervension aims to find and evidence novel ways to improve family wellbeing and reduce worst forms of child labour. The programme is funded by FCDO and runs from 2019 to 2024.
• CLEAR 'Becoming Poor: Social protection experiences of and attitudes towards new urban poor after Covid-19 in Bangladesh. Keetie is Principal Investigator on this research project that seeks to understand people’s lived experiences in relation to unforeseen and rapid changes to living conditions, especially for the new poor, and the psychological consequences of impoverishment and engagement with social support aiming to mitigate its effects. The research is funded by FCDO and runs from 2022 to 2023.

Keetie currently collaborates on other research projects led by colleagues at the Open University:

• The Examining the role of climate vulnerability in intergenerational poverty in Amazonia project is part of the OU's Open Societal Challenges (OSC) programme and seeks to understand how climate and weather changes perpetuate Indigenous poverty in Amazonia, and how social policies can be better equipped to respond climate vulnerabilities for Indigenous families. This project is led by Thais de Carvalho.
• Barriers and facilitators to physical activity for transplant recipients is part of the OU's Open Societal Challenges (OSC) programme and its research aims to explore lived experiences of transplant athletes and transplant recipients in taking up physical exercise, including enabling factors or barriers such as socioeconomic conditions. This project is led by Bart Rienties.
• ​The 3MPower project (Mobile Learning for the Empowerment of Marginalised Mathematics Educators) that evaluates a large-scale intervention on technology-enhanced teacher education for marginalised mathematics teachers in Bangladesh. Keetie advises on the quantitative component of the largely participatory ethnographic evaluation. This project is led by Tom Power
• The Catch Up Project (CUP) that evaluates the role of World Vision's CUP intervention to address learning deficiencies among children in marginalised communities in five countries. Keetie leads on the quantitative component of the evaluation. The project is led by Ale Okada.

Notable previous projects for which Keetie was PI before joining the OU include ‘Pathways to Stronger Futures in Haiti: how can economic strengthening through social protection improve early childhood development?’, funded by DFID GCRF ECD programme through British Academy, 2017-2019; ‘Assessing the perceptions and feedback from beneficiaries and service providers of the interventions carried out under the Integrated Nutrition and Social Cash Transfer (IN-SCT) Pilot in SNNP region’ for UNICEF Ethiopia, 2016-2017; ‘Researching the linkages between social protection and children’s care’ in Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa, funded by Family for Every Child, 2013-2016; and ‘Reducing poverty in the first 18 years of life: the importance of measurement for getting it right’ in Burundi, Ethiopia and Vietnam, funded through ESRC Future Leaders Grant, 2012-2015.

Teaching and professional development

Keetie is active in postgraduate research supervision. She currently co-supervises two postgraduate researchers:

2023 – present                                  Martha Nicholson – ‘How do nurses and midwives learn about abortion in Northern Ireland?’
Start date: September 2021. Third supervisor, co-supervision with Lesley Hoggart and Peter Keogh (The Open University)

2020 – present                                  Rosalind Willi – ‘Preventing child-family separation through family support: role of social support and networks’ Start date: September 2020; estimated date of submission: September 2023. First supervisor, co-supervision with Dorte Thorsen (IDS)

Keetie has supervised four PhD theses through to completion:

2017 – 2023                                      Marie Claire Burt Wolf – ‘Mentorship in Poverty Alleviation Programs: Evidence from Paraguay’
Start date: September 2017; degree awarded May 2023 (unconditional pass). Equal co-supervision with Janet Boddy (Department of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex). 

2019 – 2022                                      Juan Carlos Pane Solis – ‘The Process of Empowerment in Hybrid Poverty Interventions: Evidence from Urban Paraguay’
Start date: September 2017; degree awarded June 2022 (corrections). Second supervisor, co-supervision with Marina Apgar (IDS).

2018 – 2022                                      Khaufelo Raymond Lekobane – ‘Multidimensional Poverty in Botswana: Leaving No One Behind’
Start date: February 2018; degree awarded April 2022 (corrections). First supervisor, co-supervision with Giel Ton (IDS) and Stephen Devereux (IDS).

2016 – 2020                                      Annalena Oppel – ‘Social identity, redistribution and inequality. A case study on interpersonal redistribution through social networks in Namibia’
Start date: September 2016; degree awarded December 2020 (minor corrections). First supervisor, co-supervision with Stephen Devereux (IDS) and Dominik Froehlich (University of Vienna).

Keetie has acted as internal and external examiner on ten occasions.

Keetie also holds extensive experience as lecturer, supervisor, and convenor in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. At Maastricht University, Keetie was lecturer and convenor in undergraduate and postgraduate modules on international economics and administered a new MSc programme in Public Policy and Human Development, supporting its establishment and leading its development into a fully-fledged programme with multiple specialisations. At IDS, she was convenor of the MA module ‘Poverty and Inequality’, a core module of the MA Poverty and Development, for more than a decade, leading on curriculum development, delivery of lectures and small-scale seminars, student supervision, assessment, and quality control. In addition, Keetie has acted as lecturer, supervisor and marker in other modules of IDS’ MA programmes and has supervised more than 65 Master dissertations. She is currently HEA Fellow.

Further, Keetie has led on the development of large face-to-face, blended and online courses for professional development. At Maastricht University, she was jointly responsible for developing and teaching a large-scale blended learning professional training for 300+ senior staff from UNICEF, including supervision of small-group tutors. At IDS, she led a highly successful face-to-face short course on social protection for mid-career professionals. She also led the creation of an innovative open access online course on social protection in 2020, offering a self-directed learning experience for 2500+ adult learners around the world. 

Academic engagement

2018 – present                                 Editor for European Journal of Development Research (Impact factor: 1.931)

2019 – present                                 Member of editorial board of Children & Society (Impact factor: 0.826)

2011 – present                                 Co-convenor of DSA and EADI Study Group on Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Dynamics

Keetie regularly reviews journal articles for a wide range of journals on development studies, social policy, poverty, childhood studies, economics and public health, such as World Development, Development and Change, Children and Youth Services Review, Journal of Social Policy, Social Science & Medicine, Review of Development Economics, The Lancet Public Health.

Policy engagement

2022 - present                                  Advisory Council Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI) at the World Bank

2021 - present                                  Advisory Group Ideas42 and World Bank on cash transfers and behavioural interventions

2015 - present                                  Global Coalition to End Child Poverty (led by UNICEF and Save the Children)

In addition to acting as member of various policy groups, Keetie has strong policy networks  in the fields of (child) poverty and social protection. She has received numerous invitations to speak at high-level events, such as high-level event on social and economic inclusion for Government Ministers from across Latin America in 2024, the opening of the 3rd National Social Protection Forum in Kenya in 2023 (with the President of Kenya), the roundtable event ‘Just Give Money to the Poor’ at the European Parliament in 2020, oral evidence session for the Work and Pensions Commons Select Committee inquiry on poverty measurement in 2021, and the high-level forum Social Protection Dialogue in Ghana in 2017 (with the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection).

In 2019, Keetie acted as external expert on the development of UNICEF’s Global Social Protection Programme Framework. In 2017, Keetie initiated and directed an international research conference entitled Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa’ at UNECA in Addis Ababa, co-organised with multiple partners including UNICEF, ACPF and the University of Addis Ababa. 

Keetie is actively engaged in moving from research findings to policy impact. She does so through publication of policy-oriented outputs; communication via opinion pieces such as The Conversation, The Guardian and Project Syndicate; engagement on social media; and participation in media outlets including BBC World Service. In 2020, she founded the podcast and blog ‘Poverty Unpacked’, reaching thousands of readers and listeners across the world.