Dr Shailen Nandy

: Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for Shailen Nandy

Professor of International Social Policy
School of Social Sciences

I joined Cardiff University in September 2016 and teach on the undergraduate and post-graduate Social Policy programmes.

My research focuses on different elements of international development, and in particular on poverty analysis and anti-poverty strategies. I am interested in the role and potential of social policy in national development strategies particularly with regards progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Recently completed projects include work with colleagues at UNICAMP (Brazil), UNICEF Tanzania, and BITS Pilani (Hyderabad, India). Other work includes an ESRC-GRCF-SDAI research project looking at the problem of multiple malnutrition in young children in West and Central Africa, a national situation analysis of child poverty and deprivation in Uganda with UNICEF Uganda, an examination of child poverty among refugee-hosting communities in Uganda with the Economic Policy Research Centre (Uganda) and a British Council Newton Fund grant with colleagues at the CRONICAS research centre in Lima on nutrition dynamics and the double burden of malnutrition in Peru.

Date
Type

2026

Pomati, M. et al. 2026. Child deprivation and the power of cash: evidence from Northern Uganda’s NUSAF3 Programme. Child Indicators Research 19 , pp.603-629. (10.1007/s12187-025-10315-w)
Gordon, D. , Nandy, S. and Perez Cabral, G. 2026. The legal poverty lines in Brazil: contributions from a human rights-based approach to poverty. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 34 (1), pp.78-99. (10.1332/17598273Y2025D000000045)

2025

Najera, H. , Pomati, M. and Nandy, S. 2025. Towards a better measurement of child poverty: relative deprivation of socially perceived needs and the consensual approach. In: Minujin, A. and Delamonica, E. eds. Handbook on Child Poverty and Inequality. Elgar Handbooks on Inequality Edward Elgar Publishing. , pp.53-71. (10.4337/9781802200430.00010)

2016

Nandy, S. , Pomati, M. and Lenoël, A. 2016. L'approche consensuelle de mesure de la pauvreté : une application au cas du Bénin. Stateco 110 , pp.71-89.
Guio, A. et al., 2016. Improving the measurement of material deprivation at the European Union level. Journal of European Social Policy 26 (3), pp.219-233. (10.1177/0958928716642947)
Gordon, D. and Nandy, S. 2016. Policy-relevant measurement of poverty in low, middle and high income countries. In: Braathen, E. , May, J. and Wright, G. eds. Poverty and Inequality in Middle Income Countries: Policy Achievements, Political Obstacles. International Studies in Poverty Research London: Zed Books
Gordon, D. and Nandy, S. 2016. The extent, nature and distribution of child poverty in India. Indian Journal of Human Development 10 (1), pp.64-84. (10.1177/0973703016654561)
Nandy, S. , Daoud, A. and Gordon, D. 2016. Examining the changing profile of undernutrition in the context of food price rises and greater inequality. Social Science and Medicine 149 , pp.153-163. (10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.036)

2015

Nandy, S. and Pomati, M. 2015. Applying the consensual method of estimating poverty in a low income African setting. Social Indicators Research 124 (3), pp.693-726. (10.1007/s11205-014-0819-z)
Nandy, S. and Main, G. 2015. The consensual approach to child poverty measurement. CROP Briefs (29)

2014

Selwyn, J. and Nandy, S. 2014. Kinship care in the UK: using census data to estimate the extent of formal and informal care by relatives. Child and Family Social Work 19 (1), pp.44-54. (10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00879.x)

2013

Gordon, D. et al., 2013. The impoverishment of the UK. PSE UK first results. Living standards. Project Report.Milton Keynes: Open University.

Recent, current and ongoing projects:

2020-2021 Cardiff University GCRF Small Projects grant,Applying the Consensual Approach to Poverty Assessment in Telangana State, India, with the Council for Social Development and BITS Pilani, Hyderabad.

2019 -2020 Cardiff University GCRF Small Projects grant, Examining poverty in a polarised and unequal society: the potential of the Consensual Approach to poverty research in Brazil, with UNICAMP, Brazil.

2018 - 2019 British Council Newton Fund, Understanding and modelling the distribution of the double burden of malnutrition in Peru with CRONICAS, Cayetano Heredia, Peru.

2018 Cardiff University-ESRC-GCRF Small Project Grant, Nutrition and Population Dynamics in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with CRONICAS.

2017 Cardiff University-ESRC-GCRF Impact Acceleration Project, Developing training tools to assist National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) in the collection of data to assess multidimensional poverty for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

2017-2018 ESRC-GCRF Secondary Data Analysis Initiative, Measuring and Mapping the Prevalence and Patterning of Multiple
Malnutrition in Young Children in West and Central Africa, with Dr Marco Pomati and UNICEF Nigeria.

2017-18 UNICEF Uganda, Integration of Child Poverty Analysis in National Statistics, with Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research and University of Bristol.

2017 - UNICEF Iran, Multidimensional Poverty at General Population and Child Levels: Measurement and Methodology, with Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research and University of Bristol.

2015 - 2018 - Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden, A Global Analysis of Poverty and Living Conditions in Low and Middle-Income Countries, with Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg, and University of Bristol.

2015-2019 - Hilton Foundation, USA, Training Future Leaders to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Achieve the SDGs, with Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA and University of Bristol.

2016-17 ESRC Impact Acceleration Project, Aiding poverty data and analysis capacity development in the Pacific.

Undergraduate modules:

Introduction to Social and Public Policy
International and Comparative Social Policy

Postgraduate modules:

Citizenship and Social Policy
International and Comparative Social and Public Policy

Undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation supervision

Career overview

Prior to joining Cardiff University, I was a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and member of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, and before that Non-Clinical Research Fellow at the Institute of Neurology, in UCL and a researcher in Bangladesh for BRAC. I have been a consultant to the WHO, UNICEF, DfID, and other development NGOs in the UK and abroad.

Education and Qualifications