Theodora Yeung

Senior Manager

Theodora is an Agulhas Senior manager, assisting in research and analysis across Agulhas’ wide variety of projects, and is also a core part of the review team supporting the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, the UK aid watchdog, on evaluations such as Assessing UK aid’s results in Education, UK’s approaches to Peacebuilding, Youth Employment in the MENA region as well as an information note on UK’s aid engagement with China. Theodora assists in technical delivery as well as project management within the assignments.

Apart from ICAI, Theodora’s key client is the United Nations. She has also supported Agulhas in building a portfolio in the MENA region, notably the EU Jordan and Lebanon Compact Monitoring and Assessment, the UN Jordan Common Country Analysis as well as the UN Jordan Sustainable Development Framework Evaluation (including case studies on three selected UN agencies: WFP, UNICEF and UNIDO). A recent assignment included reviewing the literature in terms of the labour market and the refugee nexus in Jordan.

Theodora’s other notable assignments include the Multilateral Organisation for Performance Assessment (MOPAN) for the World Health Organisation and Realist Review on Just Transition Towards Low Emission, Climate Resilient and More Inclusive Societies in Developing Countries commissioned by the Green Climate Fund and ILO.

In Agulhas, Theodora is also a member of the Agulhas Conflict, Crises and Fragility Hub and the Wellbeing working group.

Before joining Agulhas, Theodora worked in an international NGO Orbis based in Hong Kong in charge of advocacy, fundraising, volunteer and donors management, while also spending some time in China, Nepal and Vietnam. She also worked as a Research Assistant at the Open University of Hong Kong on a research project about asylum-seekers’ experience in the city.

Theodora holds an MSc in International Development from the University of Birmingham (Distinction). Her dissertation topic was “One Step Forward, Two Steps back. The Impact of Disasters on Girls’ Education in a Patriarchal Society” with the Nepal 2015 earthquake as a case study. For her fieldwork, she partnered with Save the Children, UNICEF and two other local NGOs, and spent two months in various parts of Nepal (Solukhumbu, Dolakha and Kavrepalanchok) for data collection.

Key work skills

Theodora has experience in conducting qualitative research, carrying out desk analysis, writing annotated bibliographies, reports and data repositories. She has supported the team in conducting political economy analysis as well as synthesis/systematic review. She is familiar with the UN system and agencies through her work with the Resident Coordinator Office in Jordan.

She has a keen interest in refugees, education (in emergencies), emerging aid donors and humanitarian affairs.

Other interests

While currently living in London, Theodora seizes every opportunity to get out of London, either hiking within the UK or taking a step further – travelling or backpacking! Originally from Asia, she loves to explore the dynamics among different cultures from a migrant’s perspective. Her top three travel experiences are; India, Iran and Israel.

Theodora is also on her journey to become a counsellor. She is now at CPBAB Level 3. (Hence she would like to make good use of this knowledge to call for a more trauma-informed approach in development!)

If she does indeed have any time left, Theodora will either be practising Chinese calligraphy or painting!

Key work skills

Other interests

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