Academic research remains a vital source of information and innovation. This is why Apolitical invited public servants to nominate the academics who are the most influential to the work of government and Dr Dan Honig was successful in making the list for his work in policymaking process and approaches. The list recognises researchers whose work has influenced the policymaking process by providing insights into issues, contributing innovative ideas and solutions or adding relevant and informative data. This year’s list focuses on five policy areas: recovery from Covid-19; employment and skills; social policy; climate and sustainability; and policymaking processes and approaches.
Dan Honig
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Dan’s an Associate Professor of Public Policy at University College London, where his current research focuses on “Mission-Driven Bureaucrats”, exploring the relationship between motivation, management practice, and performance in Bangladesh, Ghana, Liberia, Thailand, and the US amongst other places.
Outside the academy Dan was special assistant, then advisor, to successive Ministers of Finance (Liberia); ran a local nonprofit focused on helping post-conflict youth realize the power of their own ideas through agricultural entrepreneurship (East Timor); and has worked for a number of local and international NGOs.
He’s lived, worked, and/or done research in Bangladesh, East Timor, Ghana, India, Israel, Liberia, The Netherlands, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Thailand, the UK, and the USA. Dan’s a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development, a fellow of Harvard’s Building State Capability Program, a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Policy.
Dan is among 6 colleagues here at UCL who achieved this recognition and Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement) said:
Leading academics are uniquely placed to inform policy through their research, which has the potential to improve the work of government. I’m delighted to see so many UCL academics represented on this list, particularly reflecting the broad mix of policy areas from pandemic recovery to climate change. Their achievements exemplify UCL’s commitment to seeing the new knowledge that we generate used to change the world for the better.