Personal statement

Professor Jennifer Davidson is the Executive Director of the award-winning Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures, and its Inspiring Children's Futures Doctoral Research Centre.

Inspiring Children's Futures works to reveal and resolve the structural barriers to children in adversity reaching their potential. The Institute is an international research, policy and practice implementation group with a collective vision of ensuring that children and young people have what they need to reach their full potential, particularly those facing adversity. 

Jennifer’s interests lie in the relationship between children’s rights and their lived experiences, and in the impact and value of international rights and standards to national and regional practice in public services. The mechanisms to promote meaningful and sustainable impact, from policy into children’s day-to-day lives, are at the heart of her work.

More specificallly, Jennifer works to embed children’s human rights into the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, for example as Project Director of the access-to-justice project: Justice for Children, Justice for All Global Initiative on behalf of the United Nations-sponsored Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. Jennifer’s leadership of international child rights projects has also driven change for children over many years through the implementation of the UN Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children, for example as Project Director for the Moving Forward: Implementing the UN Guidelines handbook and in her recent partnership to establish the Observatory of Children’s Human Rights in Scotland.

During COVID, by swiftly collating a partnership made up of a wide range of multi-sector international partners, Jennifer initiated and led the award-winning international 'COVID 4P Log for Children's Wellbeing' Smartphone App project, to shape policy and practice through a better understanding of practitioners' and policy-makers' experiences and views of children’s rights and wellbeing under COVID, drawn from respondents across 22 countries and 5 continents. The project won the highly competitive national Knowledge Exchange 'Making a Social Difference' partnership award in 2022.

Jennifer's international experience is drawn from her work in several countries, where has held leadership positions in child and youth care, social work and professional education. Jennifer has served on national and international committees related to children’s rights and public services.

Jennifer is the Founding Director of the leading improvement and innovation centre, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) at the University of Strathclyde. While at the University, Jennifer has secured and led the delivery of over £75M in grant funding.

Jennifer was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Honours for services to the care and protection of children in Scotland and abroad.