Director, Oslo Governance Centre

Sarah Lister has been the Director of the Oslo Governance Centre since May 2015. She has had a distinguished career as a policy researcher working on governance and civic engagement, with a focus on transitional societies. Through her work as Governance and Civil Society Advisor, and then as Democratic Governance Advisor at the Oslo Governance Centre, she has worked closely with UNDP, where her work was focused on responsibility for emerging trends in governance, and social accountability.

Prior to taking up the OGC Directorship, Sarah was with BBC Media Action, the development NGO of the BBC, where she worked as the Head of the Advisory and Policy Team and the Acting Director of Research and Learning. She held various research positions, including at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul, and the Institute of Development Studies, UK.

Sarah holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics.