Inclusive Narratives Practice Group /

Alina Rocha Menocal

Alina Rocha Menocal is a founding member and Director of the Thinking and Working Politically Community of Practice, hosted at the University of Birmingham, and Principal at The Policy Practice. Until June 2022, she was a Principal Research Fellow in politics and governance at the global affairs think tank ODI, which she joined in 2005 and where she remains a Senior Research Associate. Alina was also Senior Democracy Fellow on Applied Political Economy at the United States Agency for International Development from 2016 to 2020 and a Senior Research Fellow at the Developmental Leadership Program at the University of Birmingham from October 2014 to March 2016, where she led DLP’s stream of work on Political Settlements and the Politics of Inclusion.

Originally from Mexico, Alina is an internationally recognised expert on politics and governance with two decades of experience in conducting high-quality and impactful policy-relevant research. Over the course of her career, she has worked to bridge the gap between research and policy in thinking about governance and the politics of change, as well as to inform more effective engagement and ways of working among international actors. Alina has published extensively on all these issues and she holds a BA from Yale University in political science, and an MIA on Economic and Political Development and a MPhil in Political Science/Comparative Politics from Columbia University.

Areas of expertise: democracy and democratisation; challenges of multiple dimensions of institutional transformation; political settlements and inclusion; fragility, state- and peace-building and (post-)conflict trajectories; women’s empowerment; citizen voice and accountability; corruption and anti-corruption efforts.