William Kingsmill

Principal

William Kingsmill has been a Principal at the Policy Practice for twelve years. He has focussed on applying economic analysis and political economy analysis (PEA) to pressing development problems and opportunities for a wide range of clients, including the UK government, the Australian Government, UNICEF, and the World Bank, among others.  He has undertaken recent assignments in the East Caribbean, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Somaliland, and St Helena.  He has led training workshops on applied PEA for a number of organisations.  He focusses particularly on development policy, public policy making, growth and private sector development, including agriculture and extractive industries, public administration reform, and small island states.

Before joining the Policy Practice, William was Senior Governance Advisor to Obialgeli Ezekwesili, Vice President for the Africa Region, at the World Bank. His work at the Bank focused in particular on governance issues in resource rich economies and the role of new partners in Africa, including China.  Prior to that he worked at the then UK DFID for nearly 30 years, ultimately as acting Director for Policy.  He was head of the Growth and Investment Group 2006-08. He was Country Director for DFID in Nigeria 2003-05, and before that he worked for DFID in London as a Senior Economic Adviser.  He was based in the Caribbean 1996-99, and in East Africa 1989-93.  He worked for the European Commission in Brussels on the design and implementation of the new European-Mediterranean Partnership 1994-96. From 1983-85 William worked for the Botswana Government the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs.  He has a BA in Economics, and MA in Public and Industrial Economics from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Britain.  He was a VSO in Papua New Guinea 1978-79.