Tamara Megaw has a Master of Arts in Development Studies (Critical Social Policy) from the International Institute for Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague. She works at the University for Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF) on research addressing effectiveness of development aid and social inclusion. From 2017-2021, Tamara conducted applied research about women’s empowerment in refugee protection programs through UTS-ISF’s partnership with Act for Peace, The Border Consortium and OfERR. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney’s Southeast Asian Centre (SSEAC) on community-led protection approaches for forcibly displaced sexual and gender minorities in Southeast Asia.
Tamara is an experienced qualitative researcher and evaluator with strengths in participatory methods and co-design for applied research. She has built research partnerships with Australian Pacific Climate Partnership, Australian Volunteers International, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Plan Australia, Plan Indonesia, Plan Asia-Pacific, WaterAid Timor-Leste, and World Vision Bangladesh. She has experience working in diverse contexts across Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Pacific, and specialises in Indonesia.