Alexis Le Nestour is a full-time education researcher with the UNICEF Office of Research (Innocenti) where he works on the Data Must Speak (DMS) Positive Deviance research. Prior to joining UNICEF, he was a researcher at Center for Global Development (CGD) where he focused on education in developing countries, notably long-term trends of school quality and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on education.

He also worked for several years for Save the Children UK as a senior researcher on issues related to child protection, health, nutrition, and education. He started his career as a technical advisor at PASEC in Senegal where he led the analysis of the education systems of Senegal and Burundi. He is a development economist by training, holding a PhD in economics from the University of Otago, where he wrote his PhD thesis on the demand for schooling in Senegal, and a BA and Masters in development economics from CERDI (Université d’Auvergne).

He is a quantitative researcher specializing in data analysis, who is particularly interested in generating evidence to inform policies. Most of Alexis’s professional experience in development has taken place in African countries, notably Benin, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.