Edward is the Head of Innovation at Plan International, a global development and humanitarian organisation that advances children 's rights and equality for girls. He started his career in the British Army, transitioned to IT consulting but then found his niche at Plan International, where since 2013 he has been able to use his expertise as a technologist to make a real social impact.
In particular, Edward has been leading a global programme on birth registration and is pioneering the use of digital technologies to strengthen civil registration systems in the Global South. As a core group member of the African Programme for the Accelerated Improvement of CRVS and the Regional Steering Group for CRVS in Asia Pacific, he created the CRVS Digitisation Guidebook (www.crvs-dgb.org) and is now leading the development of an open-source digital solution for rights-based civil registration, "OpenCRVS".
Edward is an advocate of technology and innovation for good and is currently working on a number of new ideas to tackle the root causes of discrimination against girls, exclusion and vulnerability.