Rate My Professor Robin Davies

Robin Davies is an Honorary Professor at the Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, appointed in April 2023. He holds an honours degree in philosophy from the Australian National University. Davies brings extensive experience from nearly two decades at the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), including ten years in its senior executive service. He served as head of AusAID’s international programs and partnerships division until late 2011, founding head of its Sustainable Development Group from 2007 to 2009, manager of the devolved country program in Indonesia from 2003 to 2006, and Australia’s first permanent representative to the OECD Development Assistance Committee in Paris from 1999 to 2002. In the latter role, he represented Australia on the boards of the UN World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Davies was Australia’s representative on the G20 Development Working Group from its establishment in 2010, contributing to the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth. From late 2012 to 2017, he was Associate Director of the ANU Development Policy Centre. Prior to his current appointment, he headed the Global Health Division and the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for more than five years.

Davies’s research specializations include development financing, global public goods, human rights and development, aid policy and management, and Australian aid. He has authored numerous policy briefs and articles, such as “Public Enemies: The Role of Global Public Goods in Aid Policy Narratives” (2017), “Aiding Global Public Policy: Rethinking Rationales and Roles” (2014), “Something’s Gotta Give: Aid and the Financing of Global Public Goods” (2014), “Development Co-operation: New Perspectives from Developing Countries” (2017), and “The Unexamined Gift: Australia’s Aid Relationship with Indonesia” (2018). He serves on the boards of the Global Health Security Network and Femili PNG Australia, and previously on the board of UNICEF Australia from 2013 to 2017, chairing its Programs, Policy and Advocacy Committee. Davies is Managing Editor of the Devpolicy Blog and has influenced international development policy through his roles in climate funding initiatives like the multilateral Climate Investment Funds and humanitarian responses, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Indonesia.