Masooda Bano

Masooda Bano is the Research Lead for the RISE Political Economy (Implementation) team. She is a Professor of Development Studies at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Her primary area of interest is in studying the role of ideas and beliefs in development processes and their evolution and change. She builds large-scale comparative studies combining ethnographic and survey data. Within the education sector, she has particularly focused on studying the efficiency of non-formal schooling models, quality of learning in low-fee charging private schools versus the state schools, and collaborative models between state and non-state providers to improve quality of education provision. Between 2008 and 2016, she advised on the largest ever education sector support programme rolled out by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) in Nigeria, leading a number of studies to understand existing education choices in the northern states of Nigeria.