Dr. Liesbet Steer is a Fellow at the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, where she works on education in developing countries with a focus on education finance and the scaling up of education delivery. She has nearly 20 years experience in international development research and on-the-ground technical assistance.

Prior to joining Brookings, she was Director of the Overseas Development Institute’s (ODI) flagship program on Development Progress, financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to measure and understand development progress across a range of sectors. As a fellow of ODI’s Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE), she also conducted research on development finance and aid effectiveness, and the production and use of impact evaluations. Between 1997 and 2007, Liesbet lived and worked in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia. She was Director of the Economic Program for the Asia Foundation in Indonesia, a technical assistance and research program on local economic development and growth. She also worked with the World Bank and IFC on private sector reform and the design and evaluation of SME development in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Liesbet holds a M.Sc. in Quantitative Economics and Ph.D. in Development Economics.