Julie Brittain

Biography: Julie has been INASP’s Executive Director since 2016 and is responsible for the strategic leadership of the organisation. She was previously Deputy-Executive Director and Director of Programmes at INASP in which she was responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of all of INASP’s programme areas, and the management of programme teams. She was also the Director of INASP’s flagship programme Strengthening Research and Knowledge Systems which is designed to build sustainable capacity in the areas of research access, availability and production in 23 partner countries, and which was consistently awarded A or A+ by DFID for the five years of the programme.. Julie has almost 30 years’ experience (11 living in Africa) in the management of international development projects and library and information centres, with a particular emphasis on development research information. Assignments have included DFID-funded consultancies establishing a human rights library in South Sudan and advising on the monitoring and evaluation of an internet project for the Nigeria Law School in Abuja. Julie has carried out training consultancies for the ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA, and the Government of . As the Head of Library at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, she managed a national collection of development research of more than one million books and documents. She also led on the ‘stimulating demand for research’ component of the MK4D programme, which included developing an information capability programme for development researchers and practitioners and a digitisation project designed to profile developing country research publications. Working closely with IDS researchers, she also set up the IDS institutional repository. As Regional Information Coordinator for the British Council, based in Nairobi, she managed nineteen British Council libraries in eleven African countries. Direct country working experience includes Zimbabwe, , Mozambique, , South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cameroon, United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka and Egypt.

Education: 1992 Advanced Certificate in Marketing Management, Chartered Institute of Marketing Management

1988 Masters of Library and Information Science, University of Toronto

1986 Bachelor of Arts: English/Psychology joint major, Trent University

Positions held: 2016 – Present Executive Director (INASP)

2012 – 2015 Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programmes (INASP)

2006 – 2011 Head of Library (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex)

2000 – 2006 Regional Information Coordinator East and West Africa (British Council, Nairobi)

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2005 – 2006 Consultant (DFID, in South Sudan and Abuja, Nigeria on ‘Rule of Law’ projects)

1997 – 2000 Manager, Marylebone Information Service (Westminster City Council)

1992 – 1996 Head of Information (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, )

1992 – 1994 Consultant (projects involving customisation and training of Micro CDS-ISIS system at ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA, ZIANA (Zimbabwe International News Agency) and the Department of Natural Resources of the Government of Zimbabwe)

1993 – 1994 Senior Lecturer (Harare Polytechnic, Dept. of Library Science)

1990 – 1992 Assistant Librarian (Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies, Harare)

1987 – 1989 Senior Librarian, Wood Gundy (Toronto, Canada)

Publications: Contributed a chapter entitled ‘The Labour Movement in Zimbabwe, 1965-1980’ with Brian Raftopoulos to ‘Keep on Knocking: a history of the labour movement in Zimbabwe, 1900-97’, Baobab Books, Harare, 1997

Language skills: on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 - excellent; 5 - basic)

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English 1 1 1

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