Biography

Laurence Chandy

Director of the Office of Global Insight and Policy

Laurence Chandy, Director of the Office of Global Insight and Policy

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Laurence Chandy was appointed as UNICEF’s first Director of the Office of Global Insight and Policy in August 2019. He previously served as UNICEF’s Director of Data, Research and Policy, a position he held from 2017.

Mr. Chandy came to UNICEF from the Brookings Institution where for 7 years he was a Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program. There he conducted research on global poverty, fragile states, aid effectiveness, and globalization. His work, including through his membership of the Atkinson Commission on Global Poverty, shaped reforms in global poverty measurement, and helped make the case for establishing the goal to end extreme poverty by 2030.

He has worked in a number of countries, supporting governments in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the Pacific on a variety of economic and institutional reforms, and has led efforts in the delivery and receipt of foreign aid. Mr. Chandy was formerly a consultant at Adam Smith International, where his work included advising the president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, on the country’s energy sector and debt reforms. He served for two years as a senior economist in the Department of National Planning in Papua New Guinea. He also worked as a speechwriter to former president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn.

Mr. Chandy graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford University, with a M.A. in philosophy, politics and economics and M.Sc. in development economics.

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