Carmen has a PhD on international development and extensive research experience in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia. Her research focuses on the intersection of migration, health, social development and poverty with a particular interest in gender, childhood and adolescence, indigenous peoples, social protection and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. She is also Research Associate in the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Prior to joining ODI, she worked on social protection and child poverty at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

Carmen has considerable experience of working with a wide range of donors, managing and delivering multi-year research programmes with partners in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean on themes including migration, social protection, mental health, gender-based violence, economic empowerment and care systems. Funding for her research has come from a variety of donors including Oxfam GB, Plan International and UNICEF.

Carmen’s focus is mostly implementation research with direct policy and programming relevance working with a variety of approaches while engaging closely with communities. She has extensive research skills collecting primary data using co-design approaches and a variety of research methods including: in-depth and life history interviews, case studies, and a range of participatory rural appraisal techniques.

Carmen has a strong publication record ranging from academic articles, reports and literature reviews, to policy briefs and conference papers. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French.