Kevin Watkins served as researcher for the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (1983). He was then appointed as head of international development at the Catholic Institute for International Relations (1987–2001). He also became head of research in Oxfam (1991) where he covered issues such as debt relief, education,[6] social policy and poverty.
In 2000, he was part of the drafting committee for the framework of action and the six Education For All goals during the World Education Forum.
From 2004 to 2008, he was director of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report. During this time, he directed a total of three reports, from 2005-2008:
- Human Development Report 2007/8
Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world
- Human Development Report 2006
Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
- Human Development Report 2005
International cooperation at a crossroads: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world
As lead author of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report he produced the 2009, 2010 and 2011 reports:
[7]
- EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education
- EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010
Reaching the marginalized
- EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009
Overcoming inequality: why governance matters
He was Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Global Economic Governance Programme at University College of the University of Oxford.[8]
He has participated on the World Economic Forum as a discussion leader on the IdeasLab on the Global Redesign Initiative (Values and People) in 2010.[9]
In addition, he is a board member of the Center for Global Development, UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre and the Journal of International Development. He also has a blog on The Guardian.