Biography

Robert McCouch

Director of Evaluation

Robert McCouch, Director of Evaluation

Robert McCouch took up his position as the UNICEF Director of Evaluation in August 2021.

Mr. McCouch has served in a variety of evaluation roles in the UN system, including UNICEF, over the past 15 years. He was recently the Chief Evaluation Officer at the World Health Organization, prior to which he was the Chief of Section in the evaluation division of the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). From 2009-2013, as Senior Evaluation Specialist in the UNICEF Evaluation Office, he was responsible for the Organization’s large portfolio of evaluations focused on humanitarian action.

His career prior to joining the UN system was in the field of data analytics and policy and opinion research in the private sector. He was the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Harvard Medical School, covering a range of innovative programmes aimed at improving psychosocial, academic and health outcomes in highly vulnerable children.

Mr. McCouch received a PhD in social policy from Brandeis University, with a specialization in child, youth and family policy, and a post-doctorate in child-centered evaluation methods from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He holds a Cand. scient. pol. degree in political science and political psychology from the University of Copenhagen, an M.A. in foreign languages from Middlebury College in Vermont, and a B.A. in international affairs from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

He is a US national and speaks English, Danish, German, French and Italian.

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