Osasuyi Dirisu (PhD) – Executive Director, Policy Innovation Centre, Senior Fellow at NESG

As the Executive Director, Policy Innovation Centre and Senior Fellow, NESG, Osasuyi provides strategic oversight for the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) and develops the plans to support the growth of the PIC, funder diversification, people and culture.

While she was Deputy Director, PIC, she led the conceptualisation and design of research and development projects across sectors with a focus on supporting evidence-based policy process in Nigeria. In addition, she led a team of researchers, policy and gender analysts.

The Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) is the first public policy institution in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa tasked with applying lessons from the behavioural and social sciences to inform better policies and decision-making. The Centre PIC is embedded within the NESG and helps policymakers and programme implementers improve outcomes for Nigerians.

Osasuyi has over 18 years’ experience in implementing research and development projects in agriculture, education, social sciences and public health, working with a wide range of donors. She has led a wide range of interventions and research projects working with hard to reach and vulnerable populations to improve access of women, children and vulnerable groups to health, inclusion and social empowerment.

Her work has explored social determinants of health behaviour in the context of poverty, norms, social inequalities and gendered issues to develop evidence for improving health outcomes using innovative strategies to work in complex/conflict settings requiring keen consideration for context and cultural sensitivity.

Dirisu designed policy and process stakeholder dialogues across sectors to gather useful information for situating research findings in context and shaping policy recommendations.

She conducted social norms assessments, gender analysis and GBV risk mapping for several donor-funded projects in Nigeria. Furthermore, she led the social norms exploration for the ‘Nigeria for Women Project in Nigeria’ to facilitate an understanding of gender norms that influence joint household decision making for women empowerment.

Osasuyi also led the GBV risk assessment/action plan for the ‘Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment’ (AGILE) project in Nigeria.

Dirisu co-led the evaluation of Breakthrough ACTION’s advocacy core group model for integrated Social Behaviour Change (SBC) programming in Nigeria and led the UNDP Pillar 5 (data component) of the ‘EU-Spotlight Initiative’ to eliminate inequality driven by gender norms.

Also, she led the design and implementation of a groundbreaking research study that explored barriers to uptake of clinical management of rape (CMR) services in conflict settings in Nigeria.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she led development of the ‘National Gender Based Violence Dashboard’, an innovative data management and visualisation platform for the collation of validated, real-time GBV data in Nigeria.