Louise Donovan is an award-winning journalist, focusing on investigations and global reporting. She covers human rights, labor exploitation and international supply chains, often at the intersection of climate change or health.
Prior to this, she worked closely with the editorial team of Kenya’s largest newspaper, The Nation, teaming up with Kenyan journalists to cross-publish stories in both African and international outlets.
Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, TIME, The Associated Press, CNN, Foreign Policy and Vice World News, among others.
Louise’s groundbreaking stories have taken her across the globe, from Africa to the Middle East and Latin America. Several have led to systemic changes in garment factories and helped rescue migrant workers in exploitative conditions.
She won a One World Media award for her reporting on sexual violence in India, while her work examining the deadly consequences of curbing reproductive rights in Kenya was shortlisted for the Anthony Shahid Award for Journalism Ethics. In 2021, she won the ILO’s Labor Migration award for reporting on domestic workers in the Gulf using TikTok, published with The New York Times.
Previously the Deputy Digital Editor of ELLE UK, Louise edited the multiple award-winning Warrior series published in partnership with The Fuller Project.


Laid Off and Locked Up: Virus Traps Domestic Workers in Arab States

A Transport Ban in Uganda Means Women are Trapped at Home with Their Abusers

Coronavirus: Over 200% Surge In Links To Child Abuse Material Posted Online

Sex Workers’ Dilemma amid Covid-19

Kenya’s Labor Market Wasn’t Made for a Pandemic

‘You Are Beautiful’: the Kenyan Beauty Parlour Serving Female Heroin Users

Meet Beauty Therapist Saving Female Heroin Addicts

The Movement Tackling Sexual Harassment at Kenya’s Universities

Gender Activists in a March Dubbed Usawa Demand Action Against GBV, Youth Empowerment, Women Land Rights

Trafficked Nepali, Indian Women Repatriated

One-Fifth of Women Don’t Know if Abortion Is Illegal in Kenya, New Study Shows

Meet University Student ‘Counting Dead Women’ Around Kenya
‘Dumped Babies Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg’: The Deadly Consequences of Curbing Reproductive Rights

El Salvador Kills Women as the U.S. Shrugs
‘Men Kill Women Because They Can’: Inside El Salvador’s Devastating Femicide Crisis

Dispatch From Jaipur: ELLE Embeds With India’s Female Motorbike Police
