Dr. Liesbet Steer

Dr. Liesbet Steer is an international development and finance expert.

She was the Executive Director of the Global Education Commission, under the auspices of the UN Secretary General and chaired by Gordon Brown. In this context she led the design and establishment of the International Financing Facility for Education (IFFEd), a $5 billion innovative finance mechanism for education. She co-founded and is a board member of Greater Share, a philanthropic fund in partnership with private equity firms and serves on advisory boards of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited and the Education Outcomes Fund.  

Her current work focuses on the human aspects of economic and climate transitions. She is currently the Executive Director of a global initiative on People in the New economy at Systemiq, working with governments and industry. She also advises Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique on the integration of human development and conservation; and is the Board Chair of ODI Global Washington, a global affairs think tank working on development and climate.

Over the past three decades, Dr. Steer has served in a range development and finance roles. She was the President and CEO of EDC – a not-for-profit with 1600 staff working in 30 countries on education, wellbeing, and economic opportunity — and held significant roles with the Brookings Institution, ODI Global, the World Bank in Vietnam and the Asia Foundation in Indonesia. 

She was educated at the Universities of Antwerp, East Anglia and the London School of Economics and holds a MSc in Quantitative Economics and a PhD in Development Economics.