Annabel Erulkar

Annabel Erulkar is a social scientist with over 20 years’ experience in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work focusses on research and programs related to adolescents, with a special emphasis on gender, child marriage and child labor. She heads the Population Council’s office in Ethiopia and is principal investigator for several multi-country projects on the continent. She was the principal investigator for the Berhane Hewan program, named best UNFPA “good practice” for adolescents and youth and cited by U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.

Erulkar has authored more than 80 reports and journal articles related to adolescence in sub-Saharan Africa, including child marriage, child labor, schooling, livelihoods, gender-based violence, sexual behavior, reproductive health, and “youth-friendly” services. She has coordinated large adolescent projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Her work on child marriage and child domestic work has attracted international attention. She has testified in U.K. Parliament on the topic of child marriage and has hosted field visits and learning tours from Melinda Gates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, Gro Brundtland, and numerous parliamentarians and congressmen.

Before joining the Council in 1995, Erulkar was responsible for research and management information systems at the Family Planning Association of Kenya, the country’s largest nongovernmental family planning organization. She holds an MSc in population sciences from Harvard University and a PhD in social statistics from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom.