The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Program Leader, Dr. George Mavrotas. Dr. Mavrotas has a dual appointment as a Senior Research Fellow with the Development Strategy and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC and as the Program Leader of the Nigeria Strategy Support Program in our Abuja office.
Dr. George Mavrotas is a leading development economist with more than 25 years of experience in international development. He is a renowned scholar and expert in the overall nexus between macroeconomics and development finance, including the macroeconomics of foreign aid effectiveness and domestic resource mobilization, financial sector development and poverty reduction. Other research interests include primary commodity markets and natural resources, agricultural policies, human capital development (with an emphasis on the economics of education & training) as well as international migration and urbanization and development. He has extensive developing country experience (particularly in Africa and Asia) and worked in multi-cultural environments for many years. Other current honorary appointments include a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for International Development Study and Research (Ferdi, France), an External Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of the Resource Rich Economies (OxCarre) of the Department of Economics, University of Oxford, and an Associate Fellow at the Centre of Regional Integration Studies of the United Nations University in Bruges. He has also served as a member in various international committees on development issues and as an advisor to many international organizations.
Prior to joining IFPRI, Dr. George Mavrotas was the Chief Economist of the Global Development Network (GDN). He was formerly a Senior Fellow and Project Director at the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and prior to that on the Economics Faculties of the Universities of Oxford and Manchester where he taught for many years having supervised 12 PhD theses and 37 Master’s dissertations on a broad range of development issues.
Dr. Mavrotas is the author and co-author of more than 120 publications including numerous papers in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Economica, Review of Development Economics, Economic Modelling, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Oxford Economic Papers, Journal of Financial Stability, European Journal of Finance, Manchester School, Journal of International Affairs and World Economy among many others. Books include Security and Development (Edward Elgar, 2011 – with contributions by leading scholars including Nobel Laureate Michael Spence); Foreign Aid for Development: Issues, Challenges and the New Agenda (Oxford University Press, 2010) ; Commodities, Governance and Economic Development under Globalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Development Aid: A Fresh Look (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; Domestic Resource Mobilization and Financial Development (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Financial Development, Institutions, Growth and Poverty Reduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Development Finance in the Global Economy: The Road Ahead (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Advancing Development: Core Themes in Global Economics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 – both in hardback and paperback, a bestseller in Palgrave Macmillan - with a Foreword by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen); Commodity Supply Management by Producing Countries (Oxford University Press, 1997); and Natural Resources and Development: Curse or Blessing? (Edward Elgar, forthcoming). He has been invited numerous times to be the Guest Editor in Special Issues in journals including the Review of Development Economics, the Journal of International Development, the Review of World Economics and The World Economy; he is also a member of the Editorial Board in various journals.
He holds a doctorate in Economics (D.Phil.) from Oxford, an MSc in Development Economics (with distinction) also from Oxford, an MA in Economics and Econometrics from the University of London and a BSc (Econ.) from the Athens University of Economics.
