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Jessica Espey

Senior Adviser at UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

About me

Jessica is a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the Head of the TReNDS program, SDSN’s Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics. Before moving to Cambridge she was Associate Director and Head of SDSN’s New York Office. Jessica’s current research includes a study on the return on investment from improved data systems, and case study research on the legal and institutional structures required for public-private data sharing to support the achievement of the SDGs. Jessica is a member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data’s Technical Advisory Group and the Group on Earth’s Observation’s Expert Advisory Group. Prior to joining SDSN, Jessica served as a special adviser on the post-2015 agenda within the Office of the President of Liberia. She has also worked as a senior researcher at Save the Children UK, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA). Her research interests are varied and include data systems for sustainable development, evidence-based policy-making, sustainable urbanization, and the study of horizontal inequalities.
Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a Master of Sciences degree in the Political Economy of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Over the past 12 years she has lived and worked in Liberia, Kenya, Rwanda, the UK and the US.