Biography: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson joined the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in 2001 and has been Director General for Policy and Global Issues since April 2010.

The Director-General role oversees DFID’s research, policy, international trade, EU, multilateral agencies including the UN and World Bank, donor relations, civil society, private sector development, CDC, and global initiatives.  He has had a personal leadership role on evaluation, climate change, and private sector development.

Since July 2012 Michael has been on part-time secondment to the Prime Minister’s Office as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for the UN Development Goals.  He supports the Prime Minister’s role as co-Chair of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the post-2015 development agenda.  Michael also convenes a cross-government team to lead UK inputs to the Sustainable Development Goals following the Rio+20 Conference.

He was previously in charge of DFID’s programmes in India (2008-10), the Middle East, North Africa and Iraq (2005-8), the DFID policy team on fragile states (2003-5) and DFID’s programmes on justice, security, and rule of law (2001-3).

Prior to joining DFID, Michael was Director of Studies at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (1996-2001), an independent think tank.  He had an independent consulting practice in international law (1988-2001), and taught law and development studies at SOAS, University of London (1988-1996).

In 2000 he was a founder partner of Bazian Ltd., a company which specialises in information products for evidence-based medicine.

Michael holds degrees in political science, social anthropology, and law from the Universities of Washington, Oxford, and London.  He was awarded the President’s Medal at the University of Washington and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.