Fred Merttens

Biography

Fred Merttens is a consultant in the Social Policy Programme who specialises in the analysis of issues relating to social development and social protection. He holds a Masters in Contemporary History and Politics from Birkbeck College, University of London. Since joining OPM in 2006, Fred’s research, data analysis and communication capabilities have been deployed and developed through a range of projects, including qualitative research support to the Beneficiary Assessment of social assistance and social services in Moldova as part of the DFID-funded Support for Sustainable Social Assistance project; quantitative data analysis support to the evaluation of the Cash Subsidies Programme to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Kenya for UNICEF; analytical support to the UNICEF-funded Regional Study on the Reflection of Children’s Interests in PRSPs and Budgets in West and Central Africa; and research and analysis support to the DFID-funded Primary Healthcare Reform project in Georgia.

Specific areas of expertise include quantitative and qualitative research, with an emphasis on combined methods. Quantitative work includes survey design and implementation, including instrument design, sampling and data processing (data entry, checking, cleaning and management procedures), and the quantitative analysis of survey data and other data sources, including Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs). Qualitative work centres around participatory methods for poverty and policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and civil society strengthening.