As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Personal Details
Bio
Simon Maxwell is a development economist, who has worked internationally since 1970. He worked for ten years overseas, in Kenya and India for UNDP, and in Bolivia for the British aid programme; then for fifteen years at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, latterly as Programme Manager for Poverty, Food Security and the Environment. In 1997, Simon became Director of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. After leaving ODI, he was a Senior Research Associate of the ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) (now ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Global) and later a Distinguished Fellow, also Executive Chair of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, Chair of the European Think-Tanks Group, and specialist adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development. He is an Emertius Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies. In 2023, Simon co-founded Climate:Change, an independent think-tank on socially inclusive climate action. From 2001-5, Simon was President of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland. In 2007, he was made a CBE, for services to international development.