Doing
In the last 20 years I have...
2022:
| Growth and Jobs in Lagging Regions (Croatia). Led a multi-sector team of more than 100 staff and consultants to design a program for the deployment of approximately €1 billion of European structural funds. Presented recommendations live on national TV at a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, and engaged closely with several Croatian government Ministries to design high-impact public investment projects. Summary video here: |
| Subnational investment promotion (Poland). Advisory services to a high-performing investment promotion agency in a region of Poland. We pioneered a new technique to evaluate the first ten years of the agency’s performance, and worked iteratively with the client on its new strategy for 2021-2027. |
2020:
| Analysed economic growth in small regions (European Union). Co-authored a research paper on the growth pathways of 1321 regions in 28 countries, between 2003 and 2017. The paper is unusual in making a rigorous analyses at the NUTS-3 level (county or similar). The paper found lagging regions are widespread, hidden by official statistics, and have diverse growth pathways depending on the type of region. Low-income regions are unlikely to grow by mimicking the profiles of high-income regions. |
| Performance-based grants for subnational development (Global).
Advised a team to design a performance-based grant to support competitiveness investments by subnational governments. The outputs will provide World Bank teams with a framework for financing subnational grants. |
| Green Inclusive Jobs fund (Global). Designed a modular template for local jobs funds with the objectives of climate co-benefits and inclusive jobs. |
2018:
| Mayors for Economic Growth (Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan). Contracted by the European Commission to lead a team advising 124 local authorities on their local economic development plans, and to design a technical training program to address systemic gaps in tourism and agribusiness development, and for public investment management. |
| Regional competitiveness advisory (Romania, Russia). Advised a team working with the city of Brașov to reinvigorate public-private dialog with local entrepreneurs and civil society. Mentored a team in Russia to support Tver region on regional competitiveness. |
2016:
| Cluster Competitiveness (Croatia). Mentored the Croatian Chamber of Economy to devise industry transformation plans for pharmaceuticals, energy technologies, cybersecurity, and landmine clearance industries. The plans have influenced the design of €200 million of financial grants to Croatian industries. |
| Pivoting of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (Poland). Led a team to diagnose managerial weaknesses in SMEs and design a financing program for specialised consultancy support to SMEs in two regions of Poland. |
2014:
| Competitive Cities: What, Who, and How? (Global). Co-led a team of researchers to build the World Bank's knowledge on city economic development. Delivered a suite of analysis, including rigorous case studies of one successful city in each continent. Our framework has been operationalized by teams in around 15-20 countries, and delivered as 'executive training' for city officials in 5 countries. Materials available at: http://www.worldbank.org/competitivecities/ Cities Support Program (South Africa). Co-led a multi-year program of technical advice to the eight largest cities in South Africa. Led the component on economic development, and convened teams for business regulations reform, investment promotion, and city economic strategies. |
| Competitiveness and growth (Swaziland). Led preparation of a US$ 25 million loan to the Government of Swaziland, focusing on agribusiness, tourism, and investment policy and promotion. Despite stakeholder support, the loan was unfortunately vetoed by the King. Also led implementation of a trade facilitation project to streamline the processes for cross-border trade. |
2012: Customs modernization (Lesotho). Led a project to support Lesotho’s customs authority to modernize border procedures to facilitate trade. Growth poles (Mozambique). Designed a US$64 million infrastructure component to boost agribusiness supply chain and a Special Economic Zone around cities in the north of Mozambique. Private sector development (Tanzania). Researched and proposed a strategy for competitive industries in Tanzania. |
| 2011: |
| Became a full-time World Bank staff member through its leadership programme, as one of 35 successful recruits out of 11,000 applicants. |
2010:
| Urbanization Reviews and strategies (Global). Econometric and technical analysis for several of the World Bank’s ‘Urbanization Reviews’ and its urban strategy, with special focus on urban land markets and slums. |
Coordinated establishment of a high-profile Urbanization Knowledge Platform to share knowledge amongst urban policymakers globally. Led launch events in Seoul, Bogota, Addis Ababa. We had some fun with it:
2008: United Nations Development Programme (USA).
Researched and wrote a core chapter for UNDP’s major report on Post-Conflict Economic Recovery, and a guidance note for UNDP country offices on post-conflict economic recovery.
2006: Claydon-Gescher Associates (China).
Conducted research and interviews for Claydon-Gescher Associates on urban China, focusing on consumerization, industrial clustering, city competitiveness, and social exclusion.
Dynamic City Foundation (China).
Researched and wrote the book chapter ‘Chinese economics of urbanism: consumurbation, clustering, dependence, dormitories’ in The Chinese Dream: a society under construction.
Groupe Urgence Réhabilitation Développement (France).
Researched and wrote a paper on post-conflict economic recovery, and translated the book Villes en guerre et guerres en ville from French to English.
Reactive briefings, plus deeper work on asylum and immigration legislation and scrutiny of the Iraq war. We achieved headline coverage on Channel 4 news about oil industry reforms and forecasted ‘The seeds of Iraq’s future terror’ in The Guardian.