Evaluation in DFID

Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact: Short biographies

Chair

David Peretz, an independent consultant and senior adviser to the IMF Independent Evaluation Office, the World Bank, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and other international organisations is appointed.

Mr Peretz was formerly Under Secretary for Monetary Policy at the UK Treasury. From 1990 – 1994 he served as UK Executive Director of the IMF and World Bank, and from 1994 – 98 as UK Financial sherpa for G7/G8 economic summits.

Committee Members

Rachel Glennerster, is Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a center in the economics department at MIT devoted to fighting poverty by ensuring that poverty policy is based on scientific evidence. Before joining J-PAL, Rachel Glennerster worked on debt relief and the reform of the international monetary system at the International Monetary Fund, and financial regulation and trade policy at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the UK Treasury.

Anthony Killick, is Senior Research Associate of the Overseas Development Institute, London, and consultant on development policy issues. He was Director of ODI in 1982-87, Senior Research Fellow there in 1987-99, Visiting Professor of the University of Surrey, 1988-2003 and President of the Development Studies Association in 1986-88. He was awarded an OBE in 2007. His principal work has been in the areas of economic policies in developing countries, and in the ways in which the policies of international agencies impinge upon developing countries.

Robert Picciotto, Visiting Professor, Kings College, London, is a trustee of the Oxford Policy Institute and a member of the United Kingdom Evaluation Society Council. He graduated from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton) in 1962. His career in development spans over 40 years. In his last assignment within the World Bank Group, he reported to the Board of Directors as Director-General, Evaluation (1992-2002) overseeing all evaluation activities in the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Agency.

Roger Riddell, professionally involved in aid and development issues for over 30 years. He holds a BSC (Economics) Honours from the University of Zimbabwe, an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and a postgraduate diploma in pastoral theology from Heythrop College, University of London. He was a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute from 1983 to 1998, and for five years, to 2004, he was the International Director of Christian Aid. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Oxford Policy Management.

Clive Smee (CB), has a strong background in African development - he carried out his first evaluations of development assistance in Nigeria in the 1960s. His interest in policy evaluation continued throughout his career in the public service. Most recently for nearly two decades he was responsible for promoting policy evaluation in the Department of Health (and before that DHSS). He is a visiting professor in economics at the University of Surrey and author of "Speaking Truth to Power: two decades of analysis in the Department of Health".

Joseph Abbey, is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis, an independent, non-governmental think-tank, which provides rigorous analysis and perspectives on economic policy issues of Ghana and the developing world. Before founding the Centre Joseph Abbey was High Commissioner and Ambassador to Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He was also a key member of the Economic Management Team of the Government of Ghana and has been widely acknowledged as the principal architect of Ghana’s Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). Joseph Abbey was Government Statistician and Head of Ghana’s Statistical Service from 1974 to 1978. He was appointed Commissioner for Economic Planning in May 1978 and in June 1979 the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning.