Rachel Etter-Phoya is research assistant with the School of Medicine. She is also senior researcher with the Tax Justice Network.

Rachel studies the global influences on government revenue and its impact on development and human rights. She is particularly interested in the impact of the extractive industries on governance and revenue and the outcomes for fundamental rights in Africa.

As part of the Government Revenue and Development Estimations GRADE project team, she looks at the influence of tax revenue and debt servicing on access to fundamental rights, especially for children. These include the right to water and sanitation, education and healthcare.

Rachel has worked for over 10 years in Malawi, where she grew up, in governance and revenue reform. She has worked with the Revenue Development Foundation in the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources and Mining in Lilongwe, human rights organisation Citizens for Justice, Save the Children, and the German development agency (GIZ) public financial management programme in Malawi.

Rachel is an associate with Resources for Development and serves as an advisor for British government financed governance programme, Traction, in Malawi.

Rachel holds a Master of Laws in Natural Resources Law and Policy (Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, UK), a Master of Science in International Rural Development (Royal Agricultural University, UK), and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and English (University of Zurich, Switzerland).