Rose Pinnington is a Research Fellow in the Department of Political Economy, working on the ‘Power dynamics and knowledge hierarchies in forest governance’ and ‘Decision mapping for supporting localisation efforts in aid’ projects.

Her doctoral research at the University of Oxford (DPhil Politics) examined donor and practitioner efforts to provide more context-sensitive, ‘politically smart’ and ‘locally led’ support for governance reforms in Mozambique and Uganda.

Rose has collaborated on research, learning and advisory projects with a wide range of organisations, including OECD, UN, Chatham House, ODI, LSE, Itad, Oxford Policy Management, CARE, Peace Direct and USAID. With these organisations, she has worked across multiple areas, including locally led development cooperation, inclusive humanitarian action in conflict contexts, climate adaptation, gender-responsive climate adaptation, women’s economic empowerment and health systems strengthening. Rose has experience conducting research and consultancy projects in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar, Mozambique, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zanzibar.

Research interests

Rose Pinnington’s research focuses on the politics of development and humanitarian action. She is interested in donor efforts to ‘localise’ their practice, address power imbalances and respond to local political realities in operational contexts. Her research and advisory work focuses on gender, inclusion and systems change, particularly in conflict affected contexts. 

Recent publications

Kirk, T. and R. Pinnington (2024) ‘Introduction: Development practice, power and public authority’. Global Policy. 15(S4), pp. 5-10 (https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13393).

Pinnington, R., Kasaija, P., King, M., Ntezi Mbabazi, A. and Gulrajani, N. (2024) ‘Why aren’t we there yet? Understanding and addressing donor barriers to localisation in climate adaptation’. ODI Working Paper. London: ODI (https://odi.org/en/publications/why-arent-we-there-yet-understanding-and-addressing-donor-barriers-to-localisation-in-climate-adaptation)

Pinnington, R. (2023) Gender, inclusion and humanitarian principles in conflict contexts. Chatham House Research Paper. London: Chatham House (https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/12/gender-inclusion-and-humanitarian-principles-conflict-contexts)

Pinnington, R. (2023) ‘To go with or against the grain? Politics as practice in the Budget Strengthening Initiative, Uganda’. Global Policy Journal (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1758-5899.13259)

King, M., Muyumbu, G., Pinnington, R., & Rajadhyaksha, M. (2023). The Decision Mapping Tool: Understanding “local” decision-making in aid interventions. London: King’s College London (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/political-economy/assets/the-decision-mapping-tool.pdf)