Abhik Sen

Senior Adviser at United Nations

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Policy Fellow Alumnus, Centre for Science and Policy

Abhik is an adviser with the United Nations on innovation and partnerships that can catalyse and accelerate sustainable development. Previously, he was the first Head of Innovation and Partnerships at the Commonwealth Secretariat, the inter-governmental organisation for 56 Commonwealth member countries.

In this role, Abhik provided capacity-building assistance and policy advice on innovation and digital transformation to governments, and strengthened the Commonwealth’s partnerships with other organisations worldwide. He also launched and led the Commonwealth Innovation Ecosystem Programme to scale public innovation, support early-stage innovators and ignite cross-sectoral partnerships in Commonwealth countries.

Prior to this, as Head of Policy and Research with a focus on social and youth development, Abhik developed evidence-based national policies and implementation strategies in collaboration with the governments of countries in Africa, Asia, Caribbean and Oceania. He was the lead author of the Global Youth Development Index and Report (2016), a ground-breaking study that the United Nations Human Development Report Office called an “admirable and timely contribution to fill a critical gap in the global development landscape.”

Abhik has served in leadership roles at The Economist and Bloomberg and worked as a journalist and policy analyst in India. He has also been a member of the board of trustees at Apples and Snakes, the UK's national organisation for poetry and spoken word artists, and is a World Fellow at Yale University.

  • 11 June 2020, 9:30am

    CSaP Annual Conference Seminar Series 2020

    This year instead of holding a one-day annual conference in London, we will be delivering a series of virtual seminars in May and June on topics that CSaP and our network have worked on over the past year

  • 8 February 2017, 5:30pm

    CSaP Annual Lecture 2017: Professor Chris Whitty, Department of Health

    There will be profound changes in health and disease over the next 20 years. The causes, demography and geography of ill health will shift significantly whilst the trend of demand for healthcare growing more rapidly than GNI is likely to continue. This lecture by Professor Chris Whitty discussed how it can predict, and help respond to, the policy challenges that will follow over the next 2 decades.

  • In news articles

    Worldwide Action Required for Global Youth Development

    The Global Youth Development Index (YDI) and Report, produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat Youth Division research team headed by CSaP Policy Fellow Abhik Sen, is the first of its kind to specifically focus on the state of global youth development.