Theresa Devasahayam

Theresa W. Devasahayam is a social development and education specialist with 25 years of experience in the area of gender. Holding a PhD in anthropology with a concentration in feminist studies, her specific areas of expertise within gender include: (a) working women, women’s employment and livelihoods, labour markets, and worker rights; (b) labour migration and human trafficking; (c) gender-based violence/sexual harassment; (d) population ageing; (e) agriculture and food security; (f) public health and malaria; (g) gender and renewable energy/green finance; (h) environment and climate change; (i) public transport; and (j) TVET education. She has undertaken both field research as well as desk reviews in these areas resulting in numerous publications and technical reports. As an anthropologist by training, she has conducted a total of 15 high-quality studies over her career and has utilised a range of data collection methodologies including qualitative in-depth analysis and focus-group discussions (FGDs) extensively; as well as quantitative methods (surveys). She has more than 8 years of experience writing research proposals, some of which have successfully led to the winning of grants. She has also supervised junior research staff/consultants. The bulk of these studies has been published in the form of academic books (9), book chapters (13), journal articles (12), and reports (5). In Southeast Asia, she has field experience in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Timor-Leste and has provided technical assistance to governments and international development agencies for over 15 years in the following areas: (a) gender mainstreaming and integrating social and gender equality approaches across programming in diverse areas, including health, gender-based violence, transport, energy, environment and ageing; (b) promoting equitable access to (health) education, knowledge, and women’s employment; (c) strategic planning and promoting evidence-informed policy and programming based on gender and socio-economic analyses; (d) monitoring and evaluation; (e) research, data processing and gender analysis; and (f) developing, designing and/or delivering of training courses and modules. Her international development experience includes having worked as Associate Population Affairs Officer in the Emerging and Social Issues Division (ESID) of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and serving as (international) consultant to: Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Manila, Philippines and Jakarta, Indonesia); the Country Technical Services Team (CST) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangkok, Thailand; European Union Delegations (Lao PDR and Thailand); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Jakarta, Indonesia; the UNFPA country offices of Timor-Leste and Myanmar; UN Women (formerly United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)), Bangkok, Thailand; a USAID-funded project in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand; and two separate Prosperity Fund (PF) programmes (Low Carbon Energy (LCEP) and the Global Future Cities Programme (GFCP), respectively; as well as providing technical expertise to various sustainable development-related projects in Southeast, South, and Central Asia.