Ray Purcell is an experienced development economist. He originally worked in Tanzania and Botswana as a civil servant and has worked for over 30 years’ as a consultant. His strengths are in national and sector strategic planning; climate change adaptation related public expenditure planning and management; and programme and project design, reviews and evaluations, especially in the rural development and livelihoods areas. Ray has extensive experience of supporting the preparation processes of national and sector strategic plans, including the latest Rwanda national development plan (the National Transformation Strategy), and the preparation of the latest Southern African Development Community (SADC) Vulnerability Assessment Strategic Plan in 2016. His recent work has focused on the integration of climate change into government planning and budgeting processes in South East Asia (Cambodia, Thailand and Lao PDR). In 2018/19, Ray worked with UNEP on the preparation of Building the Capacity of the Lao PDR Government to Advance the National Adaptation Planning Process. Ray is a skilled team leader and communicator with a track record of successfully leading teams, including working with international and local consultants on complex assignments. He has been the team leader or team member of numerous consultancies for a variety of government and bilateral and multilateral funding agencies.

MA, Agricultural Economics, University of Leeds (1975)
Postgraduate Diploma, International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, European Centre of the Schools of Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy (1971)