As an Associate of IDS, Gabriele is affiliated with the Institute’s research, notably the of the Centre for Social Protection, and a keen advocate of the IDS’s seminal work in food security, social policy, and development visions more generally. From 2010-2012, Gabriele was a Visiting Fellow at IDS, and undertook research on the objectives and instruments of social policy in South Asia as expressions of a possible distinct welfare state approach in the region. This resulted in a volume on Development and Welfare Policy in South Asia, 2014, Routledge: London and New York, co-edited with Dr Deepta Chopra.
She is currently a Senior Research Associate of the UN Research Institute on Social Development, working on the role of the rights-based developmental welfare state in the post-2015 development process and the SDGs. She has recently been advising UNICEF in Nepal and Myanmar on social protection reforms, and worked with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on Asian welfare states.
Gabriele’s background is in international development, with a UN career spanning almost three decades. At UNCTAD, she led work on policy coherence, coordination, communications and outreach and undertook policy-related research on international trade, commodities, and investment. As the UNICEF South Asia regional advisor on social policy she advised on policy innovation opportunities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
As the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident-Representative in Latvia, she directed programmes on social inclusion; good governance, public policy and judicial reform; environmental management; and youth and health. At UN ESCAP, Gabriele worked on development planning, economic and social policy, and the LDCs. She read macro-economics and development studies at the Universities of Regensburg, Tübingen, Munich, Wuppertal, and Ottawa.
Gabriele serves on several advisory boards, including Munich City Council’s committee on municipal development cooperation, Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), and the German United Nations Association (DGVN). She is an elected member of the UNICEF National Committee Germany.
