Kia Howson is a researcher working on social protection, anticipatory action, and locally led approaches, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Her research focuses on humanitarian financing, cash assistance, and the interaction between humanitarian assistance and national social protection systems, particularly in the Middle East. She has experience in the design and analysis of social protection programmes and policies, including work on refugee inclusion and system integration in Jordan and across the region.

Her work also examines how development and humanitarian systems can be transformed through more equitable, socially just and locally led approaches, and critically engages with the colonial legacies embedded within them. She has conducted mixed-methods research and evaluations across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Kia holds an MA in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London, where her research examined the weaponisation of migration as a tool of coercion in the Russia–Belarus context.