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

Fifteen years ago today was the last day of the Gleneagles G8 Summit. I was there as the adviser for Africa and International Development for Number 10. This was the culmination of a campaign that saw 9 million brits demonstrate their support for

Britain can be proud to be one of the countries that meets the UN target to give 0.7% of GNI (gross national income) to reduce poverty in poorer countries. That’s just 70p in every £100.  This is the result of a 15-year

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge threat to billions of people around the world, but it can’t be the only priority for aid. Other humanitarian disasters and emergencies have not gone away. Countries that still don’t meet the UN target of

Webinar: Yemen in focus

Monday, 01 June 2020 14:10

Responding to COVID-19 in the world's largest humanitarian crisis

CARE International UK CEO Laurie Lee hosts a discussion with Bushra Aldukhainah and Lina Al-Saffi – who are both working on the frontline of CARE’s response to

This International Women’s Day, CARE International and our corporate partners Avon, Diageo, M&S and Unilever are commited to calling for a strong and progressive ILO Convention to end violence and harassment in the world of work. This

When it comes to Yemen, we are stuck in a waiting game, and expecting the worst. Two weeks ago, the UN

This week marks the one year anniversary of #MeToo, and the subsequent #AidToo movement. This transformed the global conversation, and put this critical issue high on the public agenda. I for one hope it stays there until we as a society and we

The UK government is increasingly highlighting the link between business and UK aid, and the need for aid spending to benefit the UK. For us at CARE the primary question has to be: does it economically empower poor

This week, the British and Kenyan Governments, together with the International Disability Alliance, co-host a Global Disability Summit. Over 700 delegates from governments, donors, private sector organisations, charities and organisations of

For 27 years CARE has worked with communities to support

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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.

Senior Humanitarian Advisor (Gender and Protection)

Toral is currently on sabbatical until the end of 2019. My job is to make sure that CARE’s humanitarian work…

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…

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.

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…

Knowledge Management and Learning Officer

I lead on communicating the impacts of CARE's Inclusive Governance work globally, coordinating a community of practice for sharing learning…

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.

Policy and Advocacy Assistant

I see my role as a bridge between those who deserve change and those who have the power to make…

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…

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…

Head of Private Sector Engagement

Laura joined CARE International UK in May 2018 as Head of Private Sector Engagement. She previously worked as Ethical Trading…

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.

Tom joined CARE in 2011 and from 2015 he led the Strategic Partnerships team at CARE International UK. In January…

Rebecca was formerly a Policy & Advocacy Intern at CARE International UK, supporting the Policy and Advocacy team in research…