Richard de Groot’s research interests focus on the impacts of social programmes on children’s health and nutrition, household economic wellbeing and the pathways of impact. He holds a PhD, completed in June 2019, in Governance and Policy Analysis from the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance/UNU-MERIT. He is currently a Research Coordinator and Research Fellow at AIGHD. He is responsible for the coordination and management of an innovative research project on mobile technologies and universal health coverage in Kenya. This programme aims to enhance access to health care for low-income women of reproductive age and with children under 5 years old using innovative digital tools. The study entails a randomised control trial and uses high-frequency, high-detail data collection techniques (Financial and Health Diaries) complemented with qualitative methods, household surveys, and behavioural experiments.

Next to his position at AIGHD, Richard is a freelance consultant and researcher for various international organizations, NGOs and academic institutions, including UNICEF, GIZ, HelpAge International and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Before this, he was a researcher at UNICEF’s Office of Research – Innocenti where he was involved in the impact evaluation of the Ghana LEAP 1000 cash transfer programme targeted to low-income households with young children. As an experienced quantitative and qualitative researcher, he has extensive experience implementing evaluations and quantitative research on topics related to poverty alleviation, human development, and children’s nutritional status. He has regional experience in Cambodia, Ghana and Kenya, and has conducted analytical projects in Tanzania and Sierra Leone.