Carsten Staur took up his position as Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in March 2023.
Prior to this, he was Denmark’s Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris from 2018 to 2023. During a career of more than forty years in international diplomacy and development, Mr. Staur has served as Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations in Geneva (2013–2018) and New York (2007–2013) and as State Secretary for International Development Cooperation (2001–2007). He has also been Director for Development Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of Denmark to Israel, Under Secretary for Administrative Affairs, and Under Secretary for Bilateral Development Cooperation.
Carsten Staur has co-facilitated negotiations on the outcome of the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals in 2010 as well as of the UN High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law in 2012. In 2014, he initiated the Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI), together with representatives of Chile, Morocco, and Indonesia, pursuing universal ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture. He has also chaired the Boards of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS; the drafting Committee of the 32nd International Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference; and the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner’s Programme (UNHCR). He has twice served as member of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), representing also Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg. In 2020–2021, he chaired the OECD Executive Committee.
Mr. Staur holds a degree in History and Literature from the University of Copenhagen and has written extensively about globalisation, multilateral affairs and the United Nations, as well as about Danish foreign and development policy.