Speakers

Alnoor Ebrahim is a professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts. His current research addresses two core dilemmas of accountability facing social enterprises, nonprofit organisations, and public agencies: How should they measure and improve their performance? How should they address competing demands for accountability from diverse stakeholders? These questions are addressed in his new book, "Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World," (Stanford University Press, 2019).

He is also author of the award-winning book, "NGOs and Organizational Change: Discourse, Reporting, and Learning," and is co-editor of "Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics," (both with Cambridge University Press). Professor Ebrahim presently serves on advisory boards to the Global Impact Investing Network and Acumen Fund on the topic of impact measurement, and he previously served on a working group established by the G8 to create global guidelines on social impact measurement.

Professor Ebrahim has also worked with the NGO Leaders Forum, an annual gathering of CEOs of the largest humanitarian development organizations based in the U.S. His previous research on accountability mechanisms within the World Bank led to a congressional testimony on improving the Bank’s information disclosure policy. Alnoor teaches courses on leadership and strategy, and also co-chairs an executive education program at the Harvard Kennedy School for the Schwab Foundation’s social entrepreneurs. Prior to joining The Fletcher School, he served on the faculty at Harvard Business School where he chaired two executive programs for social sector leaders, Harvard Kennedy School, and Virginia Tech. Professor Ebrahim received his doctorate and master’s degrees from Stanford University, and his bachelor of science from M.I.T.

Eleanor Carter is the Academic Co-Director for the Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab) and is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow.

Eleanor’s research investigates challenges in coordinating complex public service delivery networks and cross-sector partnerships. She is one of Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. Eleanor’s work explores the ability of novel contracting arrangements – like social outcomes contracts and impact bonds – to facilitate purposeful partnerships and effective services that avoid perfunctory or cynical behaviour by contract holders.

Before moving to Oxford, Eleanor gained experience from the policy-maker perspective working as an advisor for the Social Investment and Finance Team in the UK’s Cabinet Office and through collaborative research projects with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Eleanor’s work has been published in a range of journals including Social Policy and Administration and Journal of Social Policy. Key research outputs have also been translated into policy submissions and she frequently advises on policy design and evaluation strategies for government departments and voluntary sector organisations.

Franziska joined the Government Outcomes Lab in 2018 as a member of the research team. Her work focuses on the UK government funded evaluation of Social Impact Bonds using a mixed-methods approach. She is the project lead for one longitudinal in-depth SIB evaluation. Alongside, she is involved in the knowledge dissemination to policy makers, practitioners and academics.

Her research interest focuses on governance innovation, studying the impact of social investment on social service delivery. More specifically, her research examines the development of new structures and processes to build effective collaborations between private investors, NPOs and the public sector. Beyond she has an interest in service innovation, investigating the co-design of services with users and citizens.

Her previous experience includes working in non-profits, the German central government and the UN in the field of refugee protection and development cooperation. Prior to joining the GO Lab, she worked as a project officer for refugee protection in a major German non-profit organisation.

She holds a post-graduate degree in public administration (Queen Mary University of London) and in law (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich).

Richard is Chief Executive of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI). The mission of HBGI is to address the huge global gap in the understanding of, and services targeting, poor mental health (and its causes and consequences). They pool philanthropy to contract and pay for outcomes on mental health programs and also provide technical assistance to governments and other commissioners in outcomes contract/service design and performance management. They look to embed the voice of people with lived experience at every step.

Richard has been the Chair of ten Social Impact Bonds, including homelessness prevention, care for carers, refugee integration and supporting children at risk of failure at school. He is the Chair of a Development Impact Bond for unemployed Palestinian youth, with outcomes funded by the World Bank, and will be chairing a new youth Social Impact Bond in South Africa.

Between 2000 and 2012, Richard set up and ran three for-profit organisations delivering services with outcomes contracts, mainly contracted by the UK government and mostly targeting very long-term unemployment. Over that time his programs assisted around 1 million people.

From 2012 to his start at HBGI in 2022, he worked as a Senior Consultant with the World Bank across multiple countries. His biggest projects were shifting basic and essential health services in Afghanistan to new performance-based contracts and an outcomes-focused program in Ethiopia to connect refugees with jobs. He was also a Senior Advisor for the Global Fund.

Richard had an early career in international education. He studied Philosophy and Psychology at Oxford, and Applied Linguistics at Exeter.

Sarah is an experienced regional and national Contracts Manager with a demonstrated history of working in both non-profit and private sectors across Homelessness, Housing and Justice organisations. After leading the award winning GM Homes Rough Sleepers SIB and a number of other innovative pilots, she is currently leading Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership as Director. Proud Trustee of “Partners of Prisoners” charity with a passion for supporting rehabilitation and empowering individuals to achieve independence through innovative and asset based services.

Val is Head of the UK Government’s Changing Futures Programme which aims to improve services and systems to better support people facing multiple disadvantage. She has held a range of roles in Government including Head of the Centre for Social Impact Bonds and Head of Implementation for homelessness legislation and programmes. She also has extensive experience in the social sector including leading the delivery of front line services as Director of Services for homelessness charity Depaul UK.