Professor Lucie Cluver

About

Professor Lucie Cluver, OBE trained as a social worker and has practised in South Africa and the UK. In tandem with her Oxford Professorship, she is (since 2009) an Honorary Professor in Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. She works closely with the South African government, UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), USAID-PEPFAR (United States Agency for International Development/President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international agencies, to provide evidence that can improve the lives of children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Cluver has an exceptional track record of impact, and in recent years has been selected as a winner of: the European Research Council Public Engagement with Research Award 2024; the University of Oxford Vice Chancellor’s Innovation Award 2022; the International AIDS Society Excellence in Research with Children Award 2022; the UK Research and Innovation International Impact Award 2021; UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Women in Science (2021); the European Union Horizon 2020 Impact Award.

In 2019 she was recognised as one of UKRI’s 15 Women with Impact in Research, was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2023, and in 2025 she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours for her services to children’s wellbeing and to global public health.

Professor Cluver is lucky to work with an incredible and dedicated team of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and colleagues. Together, they lead large-scale longitudinal surveys and randomised controlled trials of interventions, combined with participatory research with adolescents and young people.

She was the Principal Investigator for the UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa's Adolescents Hub from 2019-2024, and from 2022 Co-PI of the Global Parenting Initiative. As an example, during COVID-19, Professor Cluver and Professor Jamie Lachman led the COVID-19 Emergency Parenting Response, working with WHO, UNICEF, UNODC, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and USAID to develop evidence-based open-source resources for lockdowns and school closures. These reached over 210 million people in 198 countries and territories and were used by 34 governments in their national COVID responses. That work has extended to provide evidence-based parenting support for conflict and crisis contexts including Ukraine, Pakistan, Turkey/Syria and most recently in Sudan

Professor Cluver's many senior technical and advisory roles include The World Bank Expert Panel: Rapid Social Response for Children Affected by COVID-19; World Health Organisation Adolescent HIV Service Delivery Working Group; World Health Organisation Parent Training Guideline Development Group; WHO INSPIRE Prevention of Violence Against Children Interagency Working Group; USAID Global Advisory Group on social service workforce; UNAIDS Reference Group for the Global AIDS Update; UNICEF Technical Advisory Group on Adolescent Participation.

As a founding member of The Global Reference Group on Children Affected by COVID-19 and Crisis, she is leading efforts to build resilience of children facing current and emerging compound crises.