Laurie Lee

Laurie Lee

Team: Chief Executive

Profile:

I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people holding governments accountable. My focus at CARE is on ensuring we have the best people to do the job we do, to support our teams on the ground in over 70 developing countries, and to ensure we continuously improve our ability to monitor the impact of our work, and learn how to do it even better.  

Prior to CARE I worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for seven years, advising them on development policy issues in Europe and Africa. Before that I worked for the British government. I managed British development programmes in South Africa and Afghanistan. He worked in 10 Downing Street to prepare the G8 Gleneagles Summit on Africa in 2005. And I ran the DFID Trade Policy Unit until 2008.

One good thing I've read

One of CARE’s goals is to help the 2 billion people – including 1.1 billion women – without access to financial services, to get them. This great and easy book, Portfolios of the poor: How the world's poor live on $2 a day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, explains why there’s no such thing as living 'hand to mouth'. The poorer you are, the more you need financial management tools.

Email: Lee@careinternational.org

Twitter: @lauriejlee


Blog posts

On Friday, CARE International UK submitted a response to UK Parliament’s International Development Committee’s Inquiry into sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid

2017 has no question been a year of harrowing humanitarian crises, a deadly year of natural disasters. According to the UN, never in our lifetimes have so many people been in need of humanitarian assistance as in 2017. What might surprise

This week (14-15 December 2017) Theresa May is in Brussels for a crunch time EU Heads of State Council meeting. The terms of Brexit, including the status of European citizens, the Irish border and future trading relations, are top of the

CARE International UK's CEO Laurie Lee and Senior Policy Advisor Howard Mollett outline recommendations from CARE towards the Global Summits on Refugees launched on World Refugee

CARE staff in the UK and across the world are devastated at the news of the murder of Jo Cox (formerly Jo

Currently an average of only 0.2% of global humanitarian aid goes directly to local or national NGOs and civil society organisations. Multiple studies have shown that local capacity is often significantly underutilised, undervalued and overlooked

I met several Syrians in Jordan and Turkey during a recent visit (mid-January). All of them said they just

Ahead of the Syria conference in London in early February, donors and governments in the region are working closely to agree a new plan for

Blog by Laurie Lee and Ramil Burden (Vice President, Africa and developing countries, GSK):

In the north eastern corner of Bangladesh lies Sunamganj district. A remote area that is underwater for almost half of the year,

In the north eastern corner of Bangladesh lies Sunamganj district. A remote area that is underwater for almost half of the year, it is one of the hardest places in the country to be a mother. In 2012, only 11% of births were assisted by a
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Humanitarian team

CARE International UK’s humanitarian team supports CARE’s humanitarian work by accessing funding, and by providing project management and technical advice and capacity to CARE’s country offices and CARE’s emergency responses. CARE has a strong focus on ensuring that all our humanitarian programming responds meaningfully to the needs and capacities of different people, whatever their gender, identity or particular circumstances. CARE’s emergency shelter team is also based at CARE International UK.

Climate Change & Resilience Team Leader

I am an environmental scientist with a background in international development, specialising in climate change adaptation, natural resource management, disaster…

Head of Humanitarian

I joined CARE International UK in 2017 and currently head up our Humanitarian team. Before CARE, I worked for DFID…

Inclusive Governance team

Poverty and social injustice are caused and maintained by unequal power relations that result in the inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities – between women and men, between power-holders and marginalised communities, and between countries. CARE believes poor governance is a key cause of poverty and social injustice. Our Inclusive Governance team promotes inclusive and accountable governance systems so that poor and marginalised people have influence over decisions that affect their lives. We help communities get organised and get their priorities included in development planning. We work to increase women’s voice and leadership in public life. We support service users to hold service providers to account. We work with public authorities and service providers to help them become more transparent and responsive to poor and marginalised people.

Head of Governance

I joined CARE International UK in 2006, with 15 years experience working in the NGO development sector. I have extensive…

Senior Governance Advisor – Asia and MENA

As a member of CARE International’s global Inclusive Governance technical team, currently based in Myanmar, I provide technical assistance to…

Programmes and Policy team

The Programmes and Policy team is responsible for overseeing programme quality and multiplying the impact of our programming by encouraging governments, business and donors – based on the evidence we witness on the ground – to adopt policy reforms that support the world’s poorest people and communities. Working in partnership with our country programmes, women’s rights organisations and civil society, we put forward the views of the most marginalised to governments, including the UK government, multinational businesses and global institutions and press the case for change. In short, our goal is to change the rules of the game that keep people poor.

Head of Advocacy and Policy (Jobshare)

After 10+ years working in the development and humanitarian sector I remain passionate about putting disaster and conflict-affected people at…

Senior Policy Advisor

I joined CARE in 2005, since then I’ve been lucky enough to work with our local teams and civil society…

Strategic Partnerships team

Strategic partnerships are a key way for CARE to increase and widen our impact. Our Private Sector Engagement team partners with national and multinational companies to co-create innovative 'inclusive business' approaches that drive new opportunities for poor people as producers, workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. We – and our partners – believe this makes good business sense: helping to generate efficiency, securing supply chains, accessing new markets and products, and improving credibility with consumers who increasingly expect companies to behave responsibly. Our Institutional Partnerships team connects the vision and commitment of our funding partners with poverty-fighting programmes throughout the world.

Partnership Officer

In my role at CARE I provide support across the team ranging from reporting for our partnership with GSK to…

Partnerships Manager

I am a Partnerships Manager in the Private Sector Engagement team. I oversee the team’s portfolio of partnerships with the…

Women’s Economic Empowerment team

Our Women’s Economic Empowerment team leads CARE’s work globally to ensure women have greater access to and control over economic resources, assets and opportunities. We focus on four inter-related pathways to economic empowerment, based on a combination of women’s core economic roles as producers, workers, entrepreneurs and consumers: financial inclusion, women and value chains, dignified work, and entrepreneurship. We also focus on supporting the involvement of women in creating resilient markets in fragile and humanitarian contexts.

Director Women’s Economic Empowerment

I joined CARE International UK in September 2016 as global Director for Women’s Economic Empowerment. Women's Economic Empowerment is one…

Senior Advisor – Financial Inclusion

Prior to joining CARE International UK as Senior Advisor – Financial Inclusion, I led the Women and Youth Financial Inclusion…

I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people…

CARE International alumni

Many CARE staff who have written Insights blogs have since moved on to other roles. Your blogs are still part of the CARE story – and we welcome any future contributions you may make to Insights and to our shared learning on what works in humanitarian response and international development.

Michelle Spearing was formerly a Conflict Advisor with CARE International UK, based in Nairobi. She supported CARE's work in Africa…

Business Manager

Sandra was Business Manager within the Women’s Economic Empowerment team and  supported the team to manage priorities and scope and…

CARE works around the world to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.

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