Gail Hurley

Start date with DI: August 2019

Where I am based: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

What I do: I am an independent researcher, writer and practitioner on development finance. I am passionate about financing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I support DI’s work on development finance with a particular focus on current and future trends in finance and their implications for development.

Previous experience: I spent nine years at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York as a Policy Specialist on Development Finance. I am an experienced researcher and analyst on such development finance topics as aid, innovative finance, crisis finance, debt and tax. I have also supported several developing countries, including Rwanda, Jamaica, Cabo Verde and Zambia, to develop national financing for development strategies or implement innovative finance schemes. I led the UNDP’s work on the 2015 UN Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa. From 2015 to 2019, I was Project Manager for the joint OECD–UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative, which I helped to build from scratch in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Prior to this, I was a Policy and Advocacy Officer for the European Network on Debt and Development (EURODAD) in Brussels where I led the organisation’s research and campaigning on debt, working briefly in Latin America. I have also worked for the European Volunteer Centre in Brussels and as a teacher of English as a second language.

I have a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a Diploma for Graduates in Economics from the University of London. My undergraduate studies were in French and Hispanic Studies at the University of Liverpool.