Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob

 

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Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob is the Under-Secretary-General for Research, Evaluation and Foresight at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation (OEC). Before joining the OEC, Jacob was the Dean of Graduate School and Research at the American University of Nigeria (AUN). At AUN, he collaborated with UNICEF Nigeria to create a new Communication for Social and Behavior Change graduate program. The program responds to the training needs of communication personnel working in humanitarian, development and conflict-related sectors in West Africa.

 

He previously held academic appointments at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University and at the Department of International Studies at Dickinson College. At Dickinson, he helped create a new graduate program in Managing Complex Disasters. He led the College’s Bridge Program for refugees - an initiative that provides an educational opportunity to young people from regions of the world experiencing conflict and natural disasters—and for whom higher education would otherwise be impossible. He was an Adjunct Professor of Media in War & Peace in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

An expert in strategic and development communication in contexts of war and peace, Jacob has provided expert consultation and policy advice to a range of governmental and international organizations including the World Bank, USAID, and the UN's Department of Peace Operations. He led an international academic team to revise the UN’s policy on public information and strategic communication in support of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of combatants and co-drafted the revised Public Information and Strategic Communication Module of the UN’s Integrated DDR Standards (IDDRS). 

He is a member of the Research Advisory Council of the Researching Solutions to Violent Extremism (RESOLVE) Network at the US Institute of Peace where he co-leads RESOLVE’s methodological and ethical guide on violent extremism research. His regional focus is on West, Central, and East Africa. He is the author of ‘Convincing Rebel Fighters to Disarm: UN Information Operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ (De Gruyter, 2017). His book, ‘Transactional Radio Instruction: Improving Educational Outcomes for Children in Conflict Zones’ (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2020) explores lessons from a US government-funded education intervention in northeast Nigeria, which he led.

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Jacob was the co-founder and chair of the Research Group on UN Media and Peace Processes (RUNMAPP). Housed at Sheffield University's Centre for Freedom of the Media, RUNMAPP seeks to address research, practice, and policy gaps in UN media during complex peace-building and peacekeeping processes. Notably, in 2018, RUNMAPP organized the first multi-stakeholder forum on the transition of UN peace operations radio stations, in collaboration with Fondation Hirondelle and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland. Also, in 2020, RUNMAPP worked with the UN's Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions in the Department of Peace Operations to revise the Public Information and Strategic Communication module of the IDDRS. 

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Jacob holds a PhD in Communications Studies from the University of Leeds, UK. He obtained his MA in Peace Studies from Lancaster University, UK. 

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