Dr. Rebecca Devitt is a senior development specialist in gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) with 20-plus years of experience in policy development, corporate strategy, and program design and implementation. Rebecca has delivered large-scale, technically complex development programs for the Australian Government and other donors across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She works in partnership with local governments, civil society, research and multilateral organisations to deliver development outcomes.
Rebecca joined Abt’s International Technical Practice (ITP) in January 2022 to advance the company’s equity agenda in its international programs. She provides strategic, quality and technical advice for programs in health systems strengthening, disability and gender-based violence service delivery, national and subnational governance, economic development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as Abt corporate initiatives. Rebecca has advanced GEDSI mainstreaming, intersectionality and targeted approaches to achieve GEDSI outcomes.
Before joining Abt, Rebecca worked across development policy and programs for 10 years with the Australian Government. As Technical Lead for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), she advanced GPE’s gender equality mainstreaming and Girls’ Education Accelerator Grant. Prior to that, she served as First Secretary, Gender, Inclusion and Strategy at the Australian Embassy, Jakarta. There, Rebecca led a team of local staff to deliver large, politically sensitive programs in gender equality and women’s empowerment; social inclusion; and justice and democratic governance. She oversaw GEDSI corporate strategy and accountability and provided technical advice to increase GEDSI performance. Rebecca has led the research, design, and monitoring and evaluation of programs and influenced policy in areas of social inclusion, gender-based violence, governance, and women’s economic empowerment.
Expertise
- Gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) in development
- Disability Equity
- Governance
- Women’s economic empowerment
- Knowledge to policy
- Civil society led reform
Key Projects
- Systems Strengthening for Effective Coverage of New Vaccines in the Pacific
- Australia-Papua New Guinea Economic Partnership
- Australia-Papua New Guinea Subnational Governance Program
- Australia-Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services
- Investing in Women
Publications
- ‘Healing the heartbreak’?: The role of testimony in the Australian Inquiry into the separation of Indigenous children from their families’, in the Special Issue ‘Decolonising Testimony: On the Possibilities and Limits of Witnessing’, Humanities Research, vol. xv, no. 3, 2009. http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p15131/pdf/041.pdf
Education
- PhD, Gender Studies, School of Humanities, Australian National University, 2008
- BA (First Class Honors), Philosophy and Women’s Studies, Australian National University, 1997
Awards/Honors
- Gender, Inclusion and Strategy Unit team award for outstanding service to advancing gender equality culture in the workplace, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia (2021).
- Australian National University Postgraduate Award, (1998-2001)