Marie-Claude Martin

Marie-Claude Martin is the Director of Global Initiatives at the Alliance for Human Development, in Toronto, Canada. The Alliance for Human Development focuses on strengthening global research and partnerships for early childhood health, growth, learning and development. At AHD, Marie-Claude manages and conducts intervention research aimed at supporting the healthy development of children in low- and middle-income countries. She also focuses on the development of a global partnership to foster a sustainable alliance of knowledge producers and users around the globe.

Prior to joining the AHD, Marie-Claude spent three years as Associate Director and then Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office of Research – Innocenti in Florence, Italy, where she provided leadership for the development of a UNICEF-wide research agenda and helped disseminate and apply research findings to policy development, advocacy and programming. Before that, she served in a number of senior positions at Canada’s International Development Research Centre where she developed and led a large portfolio of global research initiatives. Her areas of research include human development, child well-being, poverty analysis, health equity and determinants of population health. Marie-Claude holds an M.A. in development economics and a Ph.D. in public health.

Marie-Claude is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and serves on the Board of the African Economic Research Consortium. She also served on the Board of the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) and chaired its finance and audit committee from 2012 to 2019.