Peter Middlebrook

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Peter J. Middlebrook

Dr. Peter J. Middlebrook (born in Lincoln, U.K., 15 November 1965) is a leading political economist / Political Scientistspecialising in the reconstruction and development of Transitionand post conflict economies. He specialises in the political economy of Central Asia, South Asia and the Horn of Africa with a focsu on public and private investment finance, Public-Private Partnership, the privatisation and transofrmation of national economies and productive infrastructure, Energy utilities and other public goods.

[edit] Biography

Dr. Middlebrook has published widely on the challenges of economic development and post conflict reconstruction, with much of his work focusing on public and private investment, restructuring of government institutions, political analysis and the political economy of economic growth and poverty reduction. He is the Joint managing director of Middlebrook & Miller, a private international consultancy and think tank specialising in analytical advisory services to Government, Investment Banks and International Financial Institutions. He worked for the World Bank in Afghanistan and India as an economist and as an Senior Advisor to the Government of the Afghanistan on the Afghan National Development Strategy and Afghanistan Compact where he worked as an advisor to Presidents Office. In his time at the World Bank he pioneered the Bank's work on public finance management in the area of national security and subsequently introduced the concept of 'right-financing' of public finances for national security in support of Fiscal Sustainability. At its core, the concept of rightfinancing, as applied to national and human security, is fundamentally about determining security as a sustainable public good, with relevance to good governance and oversight and accountability mecahnsims and prioritization mechanisms and processes that support increasingly higher quality security services over time.

He was the overall coordinator and working group team leader of more than 100 international experts on the successful Securing Afghanistan's Future exercise, a seven-year US$27.5 billion public investment program presented to an international conference in Berlin attended by 65 finance and foreign ministers. Described as the most comprehensive program ever prepared and presented by a poor country to the international community, Dr. Middlebrook co-chaired the national committee with Dr. Ashraf Ghani, nominee for United Nations Secretary-Generaland then Afghan Minister of Finance to President Hamid Karzai. The concept of a double-compact, between the donors and the government of Afghanistan on the one hand and between the government and people of Afghanistan on the other, underpinned the program of investment to which international donors pledged a total of US$8.2 billion for the first three years of this public investment program.

Dr. Middlebrook has published many foreign policy articles on the challenges of Economic Development and reconstruction of States. In 2006 he was invited by the US Council of Foriegn Relationsto make a presentation on the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan and has worked extensively on National Security issues advising the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Furthermore, Dr. Middlebrook has lead loan negotiation exercises with Government and the private sector, worked on regional trade agreements and trade facilitation, drafted legal frameworks for private sector development and foreign direct investment, as well as laws to restructure commercial banking and the administrative structures of state to support the emergence of a growth enabling environment. Dr. Middlebrook has also published Online Books on hunger and poverty reduction and is currently the editor of a number of journals.

Dr. Middlebrook continues to provide policy advisory services to the Government's of the United Kingdom, the European Union, World Bank, OECD, Asian Development Bank,Netherlands Government, and the government's of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka,Malawi, Nepal Nigeria and Sierra Leone among others.

[edit] Education

He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree First Class (Hons) from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle on Environmental Management, UK and a PhD from the University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies UK on Public Policy in India in relation to growth economics.