Alex Read Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Vientiane, Laos

Strategic and Technical Lead for the UNDP Strengthening Capacity and Effectiveness of the People’s Assembly System in Lao PDR (STEPS) Project. Responsible for the design and implementation of initiatives across the National Assembly and Provincial People's Assemblies in Lao PDR to enhance the Assemblies and their Members' capacity to effectively represent their constituents, especially women and vulnerable groups, improve government accountability and broaden the Assemblies involvement in budgeting and legislative processes.

Help design and deliver induction and MP professional development programmes across Pacific Island Country parliaments.

Author of Substack newsletter ‘Parliament's AI Future’, a publication examining the emerging impact of AI on democracy and society and the role of Parliament in AI governance.

Advised the Inter-Parliamentary Union on innovative approaches to peer-to-peer capacity development and networking. Helped roll out global initiatives including on legislative scrutiny and the SDGs, using new online tools to engage MPs and staff of the IPU’s 179 member parliaments.

Provided strategic advice and recommendations on parliamentary development and democratic governance programming in Ethiopia, incorporating conflict and fragility analysis.

Delivered a final evaluation report on UNDP’s second phase of support to the Parliament of Fiji.

Produced dimensions of a global indicator framework to set standards and measure operations of democratic parliaments in line with SDG 16, addressing issues of gender responsiveness, inclusiveness and representation; and state policy areas including SDGs, human rights, security sector and defense policy.

Bangsamoro Autonomous Region In Muslim Mindanao, Philippines

Technical lead for a project with the newly established sub-national parliament, supporting institutional development in a post-conflict, transition setting. Designed and oversaw capacity development for MPs and staff in legislative and budget scrutiny, committee development, public engagement. Ran a programme to help civil society organisations engage with parliament.

Naypyitaw, Myanmar

Strategic and technical lead overseeing programming for parliaments in Myanmar. Represented UNDP and the IPU in providing strategic advice on democratic and parliamentary development to Speakers, MPs and administrative leadership in Myanmar. Designed and led programmes which introduced structured evidence-based oversight inquiries to parliamentary committees; supported MPs to engage in complex areas including human rights and women, peace and security; and which supported the strategic development of parliamentary services and use of ICT in parliament.

Yangon, Myanmar

Interim position managing UNDP’s flagship local governance project with responsibility to ensure quality and timely delivery of technical, operational, financial and administrative outputs.

Sri Lanka; Vietnam

Presented at conferences and facilitated workshops on parliamentary engagement on the SDGs for representatives from Government and Parliament in Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Naypyitaw, Myanmar

Led the technical development of the Parliament of Myanmar’s Learning Centre, an body providing capacity development to MPs and staff of national and sub-national parliaments and supporting public engagement with new democratic institutions. Designed and implemented MP induction and professional development programmes, including building partnerships with UN agencies, international parliaments and civil society; and a strategy for capacity development of over 1,500 parliamentary service staff.

Cambodia

Senior management position with strategic development responsibilities for a civil society organization supporting the Cambodian parliament which I helped to found in 2011.

Cambodia

Led recruitment, operational set up and management of specialised teams providing the Cambodian parliament with international standard parliamentary research, including building partnerships with ASEAN Parliaments, UN agencies, INGOs and civil society organisations.

Cambodia

Managed editorial process for a strategy and proposal to establish the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia, securing long-term core funding from two donors. Developed training for parliamentary staff on gender-sensitive parliaments.

Cambodia

Produced IEC/BCC material to support public knowledge of and engagement in decentralization reform and anti-corruption initiatives in Cambodia, delivering training to civil society and grassroots organisations.

Cambodia

Project management duties for a bi-lateral parliamentary strengthening project in Cambodia. Wrote guidelines for Cambodian MPs to conduct representation duties, helping improve parliament’s responsiveness to citizens and civil society.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Conducted original research on anti-corruption initiatives in Cambodia, leading a team conducting focus groups across the country.

Master'S Degree, Msc Public Policy And Human Development

Bachelor'S Degree, Ba Politics And Development Studies, First Class Honours

Education record

Education record