Dr. Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng is the Global Director of the Centre for Equitable Development at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a global development and environmental specialist. Dr. Ochieng has held appointments with several academic, development and non-governmental organizations. Before joining WRI, he was the Director of the African Natural Resources Centre at the African Development Bank. Before that, he was Professor of the Practice of Global Development Policy at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University.

He has also served as the Executive Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in Nairobi, Kenya and as the Technical Coordinator of the Business, Economics and Biodiversity Programme of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Eastern and Southern Regional Office in Pretoria South Africa. His other past appointments include, as: Lecturer, Sustainable Agriculture, Land and Water (Lancaster University); Director, Policy, and Markets in Africa (Eco-Agriculture Partners, Nairobi, and Washington D.C.), Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington D.C. and Addis Ababa), and Trade and Investment Policy Officer, (Action Aid International, London).

Dr. Ochieng holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies from Oxford University, a master’s in development studies from Cambridge University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyatta University, Kenya. His doctoral determination examined the political economy of contract farming in tea and sugar in Kenya. Dr. Ochieng has written extensively on sustainable development issues including as follows:

• Ochieng, C. 2020. (ed.) Rethinking Land Reform in Africa: New Ideas, Opportunities and Challenges. Abidjan: African Development Bank Group.
• Ochieng, C. (2007). Development through positive deviance and its implications for economic policy making and public administration in Africa: the case of Kenya agricultural development, 1930-2004. World Development 35: (3) 454–479.
• Ochieng, C. (2007) Re-vitalizing African agriculture through innovative business and organizational arrangements: promising developments in the traditional crops sector. Journal of Modern African Studies 45 🙁 1) 143-169
• Ochieng, C. (2007) The EU-ACP economic partnership agreements and the development question: opportunities and constraints posed by Article XXIV and special and differential treatment provisions of the WTO. Journal of International Economic Law 10: (2) 363-395.
• Ochieng, C. 2010. ‘The Political Economy of Contract Farming in Tea in Kenya: The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA)’, in Heyer, J. & Harris-White, B. (Eds) Comparative Political Economy of Development in Africa and Asia. London: Route ledge.