Biography: As Director of Global Partnerships at Foundation Center, Lauren Bradford manages the SDG Philanthropy Platform including SDGfunders.org and other major projects and relationships. She joined Foundation Center to create a global strategy for developing and managing bilateral and multilateral partnerships that are instrumental in fulfilling the organization’s vision to build a global data and knowledge base for philanthropy, strengthen and connect the philanthropic sector to the global development ecosystem, and achieve more effective grantmaking and development outcomes. Lauren began her career in strategic urban planning in Australia before transitioning to international development with the United Nations (UN) in Timor-Leste, where she worked on Millennium Development Goal progress and UN Country Team coordination. From there she joined the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), working in the World Heritage Center, and then to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Cooperation Directorate/Development Assistance Committee (DAC) where she advised and coordinated the OECD Post-2015 task team and supported the work on financing for development including Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD). After this, Lauren worked with the World Bank, looking at how best to leverage land to structure urban regeneration private-public partnerships.  

With degrees in both Urban Planning and International Development, Lauren has expertise in the global development framework and its relationship to data and knowledge, including the creation and implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the financing of the 2030 development agenda.