Alexandra Bilak is the Director of the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). She leads a team of experts providing global estimates and expert analysis on internal displacement worldwide. Prior to becoming Director, Alexandra led IDMC’s Policy and Research work on displacement in the context of conflict and violence, disasters and climate change, and development investments.
Alexandra has over fifteen years’ experience working on evidence-based policy development, programme design and delivery. Between 2004 and 2014, she lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, where she worked for various research institutes and international NGOs and managed research and advocacy programmes on conflict, forced migration and transitional justice. Alexandra has authored a number of articles and reports on forced displacement, conflict transformation, inter-community conflict, return and local integration in Africa’s Great Lakes Region. She now directs the annual publication of IDMC’s flagship Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID), and has particular interest in understanding the structural drivers and economic impacts of protracted and recurrent internal displacement.
Alexandra holds a Master’s degree in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and a DEA in African Studies and Political Science from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.