Dr Phil Dobie

Phil Dobie has been a practitioner in development assistance for his entire career. He began as a research biologist developing crop varieties for poor people in the developing world. He later became Senior Advisor in Natural resources and Research in Africa for the United Kingdom’s development programme. He moved to the United Nations in New York where he established and managed Capacity 21, a global capacity building programme helping countries to implement Agenda 21, the global programme of action of the United Nations Earth Summit. He then took over UNDP’s Drylands Development Centre. He moved the Centre from New York to Nairobi, where he worked in close collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme helping countries to integrate environment and sustainable development into national policies. Since retiring from the United Nations he has returned to his research roots as a Senior Fellow with the World Agroforestry Centre. He focuses on policy issues and linking research with implementation and has been active in linking the research community to the international Rio+20 and 2015 development processes.

Throughout his career, Phil has worked closely with policy makers and decision makers in developing countries, in donor institutions and in multilateral institutions (especially the United Nations and the World Bank). He has worked in close partnership with a number of universities. He has lived for extended periods in Mexico, Mali, Kenya and the United States of America. He has worked extensively in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East and in some countries in Asia. Phil lives much of the time with his wife Romala in Nanyuki, Kenya, with extended periods spent in West Cork.

Academic Liaison

Dr Nick Chisholm, Department of Food Business and Development