Consultant
Veena Pillai, Global Health and Humanitarian Medicine Consultant
Based in Malaysia
Dr. Veena Pillai is a global health and humanitarian medicine consultant with over 15 years of experience working across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia. She holds an MBBS from the University of Adelaide (2006) and a Master in Disaster Medicine (2011), with a focus on humanitarian response.
Her work is dedicated to strengthening access to fundamental human rights through a global consultative practice that bridges clinical, research, programmatic, and advisory expertise. Veena has extensive experience with communities affected by displacement and migration, HIV, child protection concerns, sexual and gender-based violence, restricted contexts, public health, and mental health.
She has led and coordinated numerous social research projects, including mixed-methods and participatory studies with Rohingya, Afghan, and other refugee and migrant communities, as well as health needs assessments and mental health interventions among marginalized populations. Her work spans partnerships with UN agencies, NGOs, and academic institutions, and includes recent collaborations with UNICEF, WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, MERCY Malaysia, and Anthrologica.
Her programmatic work includes clinical work, policy and process development, strategic planning, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation across humanitarian and public health programs.
She has implemented case management and SGBV programs with Médecins Sans Frontières and other organizations in complex settings, and regularly conducts training in humanitarian and research ethics, gender-based violence, and clinical and research skills.
In her advisory and advocacy roles, Veena draws on nearly two decades of work with marginalized populations to craft evidence-based, contextually grounded recommendations and advocacy messages for communities, policymakers, and the public. She also mentors NGOs, students, and consultants on ethical, inclusive, and community-centred approaches.
Veena contributes actively to development of ethical practices, including as first author of the “Research Ethics in Refugee Studies” chapter in The Health of Refugees (Oxford University Press, 2019). Veena serves as Chair of the Ethics Consultation Services for Marginalised Populations (ECS-MP), an independent body providing ethics guidance to researchers and institutions working with displaced and marginalised communities. She has spoken at several ethics conferences, with a focus on marginalized communities and humanitarian crises.
Alongside her consultative and research work, she maintains active clinical engagement with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), ensuring her humanitarian and medical practice remains rooted in the lived realities of the populations she serves.
Consultant
Jennifer Clement, Consultant & Researcher
Based in Malaysia
Ms. Jennifer Clement is a researcher and consultant with over a decade of experience working directly with marginalized communities. She brings expertise in conducting research, policy and advocacy, and program development particularly related to refugee and migrant rights, child rights, immigration reform, mental health, and access to healthcare and education in Malaysia.
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Jennifer has two Bachelor degrees, the first in Law from the University of London and the second in Psychology from HELP University in Malaysia that has contributed to her ability in analysing issues from a social and legal perspective. Her work is dedicated to strengthening access to fundamental human rights through the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions, policy and advocacy, supporting community-led advocacy and research, building programs to respond to specific needs of communities, and supporting capacity development on data collection, monitoring and evaluation, and documentation.
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She has co-authored and conducted several mixed-methods research projects with a particular focus on qualitative methods and is also working on strengthening skills in participatory approaches in research. She has also conducted legal analysis consultancies on amendments to the Immigration Act and the Child Act of Malaysia.
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Jennifer has experience in program development and supporting organizations with strengthening program policies and processes. In 2015 she co-developed the first holistic Community Placement and Case Management Program for unaccompanied and separated minors affected by migration in Malaysia for a local organization, and provided a series of case management support for organizations in the region. With experience in case management, supervision, and monitoring and evaluation, she continues to play an advisory role for similar organizations to strengthen program policies and documentation.
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Over the years, Jennifer has also facilitated and coordinated NGO and community based networks, and various other loose coalition networks. In this role, she has developed stakeholder and advocacy reports with policy recommendations for several international mechanisms including the UNCRC, CEDAW, and UPR reporting and drafted reports related to meaningful refugee participation and access to work rights.
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In a voluntary capacity, Jennifer works independently with community based organizations in Malaysia that are working with people affected by migration. She has supported several refugee-led organizations and networks to access protection mechanisms, implement research projects, develop monitoring and evaluation plans, and co-design research projects. She also facilitates and engages in knowledge sharing and discussions on research ethics, data collection, and data analysis, and dissemination of findings. Jennifer is also a voluntary member of a local ethics consultative service (ECS-MP) that provides ethical review and aims to build research understanding among marginalized communities.