Brian Baldwin

Brian Baldwin (Geographer and Agricultural Economist) held field posts with the UK’s Overseas Development Administration (the precursor of DFID) in Sri Lanka and Zambia in design and evaluation of agricultural and rural development programmes. These long term in-country positions within the civil service structure gave an important perspective on the needs and priorities of emerging countries, their constraints and opportunities. Subsequently, he worked as an independent economist with USAID, UNIDO, FAO, IFAD, EU and the private sector in the Caribbean, Thailand, Philippines, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana and Zambia.

He began working with IFAD in 1988 as a country programme manager in Asia Region (Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Myanmar. With a focus on project preparation and implementation, tasks included stakeholder workshops, appraisal, loan negotiation and management of loan administration and supervision.  Partnerships were developed with co-financiers (World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank), and bilateral donors such as Sweden, Ausaid, Germany and UNDP, FAO and WFP.

From 2004 he was IFAD’s Senior Operations Management Adviser in office of Asst. President for Programme Management. He led IFAD’s involvement in HIPC-DI and Debt Management to provide debt relief to selected IFAD member countries, the implementation of IFAD’s financial allocation system and the MOPAN exercise.  He managed IFAD’s harmonisation and alignment initiatives under the Paris Declaration and Accra accords. He co-chaired the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, chaired the Multilateral Development Bank working group on Management for Development Results, and was the IFAD representative at the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) working party on Aid Effectiveness which evolved into the Global Partnership for Effective Development, and the Steering Committee of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Since leaving IFAD he continues to work as a development and policy adviser with both public and private sector in Ghana, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.