Richard Carey, Director, Development Co-operation Directorate

Mr. Richard Carey was appointed Director of the Development Co-operation Directorate on 1st March 2007.

Mr. Carey came to the OECD’s Development Co-operation Directorate in 1980, after having worked in a range of economic policy positions with the New Zealand Treasury from 1966-77, and as Deputy Permanent Representative in the New Zealand Delegation to the OECD from 1977-80.

As Deputy Director of the DCD, he led the analytical work for the North-South Group during its existence from 1980-1989 which culminated in the 1989 report, “The OECD and the Major Developing Economies”. This was the basis for the OECD Council’s decision to begin a dialogue with dynamic developing countries.

Mr. Carey has been closely associated with the major developments in the work of the DAC, including the 1989 statement on “Aid in the 1990s”, the evolution of the peer review system and several of the subsidiary body functions, including governance and capacity development. He acted as secretary to the high-level Groupe de Réflexion which produced the influential 1996 report on “Shaping the 21st Century: The Role of Development Co-operation”, where the concepts of development goals, developing country-led partnerships and policy coherence were set out, leading to the UN Millennium Development Goals and to the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness.

Since the late 1990s, Mr. Carey has led the DAC’s work on trade capacity building and aid for trade and its close co-operation with WTO. He has also been closely involved in the OECD’s relationship with Africa, including the establishment of the Africa Partnership Forum Support Unit.

Born in New Zealand in 1945, Mr. Carey was educated at Victoria University of Wellington, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science and an honours degree in economics, and at the London School of Economics, where he received the degree of Master of Science in Economics.

Mr Carey is a member of the governing body of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex  University.

Mr. Carey is married, with three grown-up children in London and Paris.