Yvonne Agengo

Yvonne Agengo is a DPhil student (Part-time) in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation under the supervision of Prof. Lucie Cluver. Yvonne is encouraged by the Global Initiative to Support Parents and the ongoing work to end Violence against Children. Her research is looking at the challenges experienced by parents in humanitarian settings, how parenting interventions support caregivers and how evidence-based parenting interventions can safely be taken to scale in conflict settings. She is interested in community-led approaches and in co-designing and testing acceptability of scalable interventions with parents and other stakeholders in the community in humanitarian settings.  

Yvonne has worked in humanitarian settings in the last 13 years focusing on Child Protection, and before that, in development settings focusing on Protection mainstreaming at the start of her career. After her undergraduate studies (the University of Nairobi), Yvonne worked in Kenya in a Protection programme that was looking into community perceptions of Protection. During this time, she supported the project leads in conducting community consultations and learning from people with lived experience about protection concerns in their communities and what mattered to them the most. This sparked her interest in community work and in qualitative research methods. 

Her studies in Anthropology (Bachelors) and in International Human Rights Law (Masters) have facilitated her interest in bringing together social interventions that promote human rights and specifically the rights of children. Over the years, Yvonne has worked with various international organizations such as the International Rescue Committee (current), World Vision and Save the Children. Throughout her career, she has supported and led assessments, design and implementation of child protection programmes in protracted humanitarian situations and in emergencies in multiple countries mostly in Africa (East Africa, Central Africa and West Africa) and Middle East. 

Her research is looking at the challenges experienced by parents in humanitarian settings, how parenting interventions support caregivers and how evidence-based parenting interventions can safely be taken to scale in conflict settings. She is interested in community-led approaches and in co-designing and testing acceptability of scalable interventions with parents and other stakeholders in the community in humanitarian settings.