[1] His country experience includes projects in Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China.

[6] Lewin has supervised more than 40 Doctoral students and was the founding Director of the master's degree program in International Education and Development at the University of Sussex which is now in its thirty third year with over 500 alumni.

He then went on to complete a Masters in Innovation and Science Policy jointly taught with Manchester Business School and wrote a thesis on the scientific research organisations that were supported by British aid.

His thesis explored science education in Malaysia and Sri Lanka and the impact of externally supported innovations to improve access, quality and outcomes linked to development.

In Malaysia he was a visiting lecturer at University Malaya whilst completing his doctorate working closely with colleagues in the Pusat Perkembangan Kurrikulum (PPK).

In India Lewin has worked closely with the National University of Educational Planning (NUEPA) on a large scale program of research on access and equity using household surveys and child tracking to understand more about why more than half the children in North Indian states fail to reach secondary school.

In addition Lewin has worked closely with teams from Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh and with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and NUEPA to develop state level framework plans for Rastriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) with the aim of progressing towards universal access of quality secondary education across India.

Lewin established the first educational link programs in China with a UK university in the early 1980s after the end of the Cultural Revolution and the fall of the "Gang of Four".

After the links were established, which provided for exchange visits by students and staff, the first phase of work centred around evaluating the impact of the 1986 Basic Education Law.

This anticipated the global commitments made at the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA) in Jomtien to universalise access to primary schooling, and followed from China's "Four Modernizations" drive to develop.

For ten years he worked with Dr Ude Bude and colleagues on a network to support development for environmental science and agriculture programs across fourteen Sub Saharan African countries.

In 2001 Lewin was invited to be a senior consultant to the Government of Uganda and DFID to develop the national framework for Post Primary Education and Training (PPET).

In each case he developed software for national projection models for recurrent and capital financing to shape sustainable Medium Term expenditure Frameworks, inform Sector Reviews leading to budget support, and focus policy dialogue on key issues.

Currently he is undertaking research on low price private schools in Malawi Lewin has acted as an advisor to many multi and bi-lateral development partners.

Downstream this resulted in a flow of activities related to addressing problems of sustainable financing for the expanded access to secondary schooling critical for development dependent on more knowledge intensive production and competitive service sector industries.

In the recent past UNICEF's program to undertake research on out of school children has drawn on models of educational exclusion developed by Lewin for CREATE.

"[20] This is also tied to the concept of "Zones of Improbable Progress (ZIPS), which Lewin developed, that characterise the pursuit of goals long after it has become clear they are unattainable in the time available.

[28][29] Lewin's work in the CREATE consortium, with its extensive network of partners, has made a significant contribution to redefining policy dialogue around access, equity and learning outcomes.

[31] Its insights into the extent and consequences of over-age enrolment, which is endemic in many parts of Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia, are critical to the achievement of universal access – through to successful completion of – basic education, especially for girls.

The findings illustrate how increased participation as a result of massive investments in Education for All programs have yet to provide as much benefit to the poorest as the middle poor.

[34] It also highlights the "moral hazards" embedded in systems that reward progress by withdrawing support when goals are achieved, and the difficulties when performance asymptotically approaches a limit.