Christopher Tanner

Principal Consultant

Christopher Tanner has over 30 years of experience in rural development, land policy and legislation, sustainable and equitable rural development, community-investor land partnerships, and community natural resources management.  He has been providing technical assistance and designed and managed projects for FAO, the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and private sector and NGO clients, since 1990.  He played a leading role in developing innovative land legislation in Mozambique and Guinea Bissau; and for eleven years was FAO Senior Advisor on Land and Natural Resources in Mozambique.  Since joining Mokoro in 2012, he continues to work on land issues, focusing on inclusive business models and local land rights, community and women’s legal empowerment, and land governance.  He has strong appraisal and evaluation skills, leading a Mokoro evaluation of UNICEF education policy work in Brazil, and participating in a global evaluation of the Scaling up Nutrition programme.  His research skills are rooted in his doctoral work on land access intersecting with farm household reproduction and child malnutrition, and a life-long interest in indigenous land systems and livelihoods strategies.  Recently he led a land governance transparency initiative in Ethiopia for DFID, examined linkages between community land rights, natural resources management and rural development in Mozambique for the World Bank, helped design a World Bank land and investment project, and worked on new legal instruments for leasing customary land to investors.  Recent written work includes evidence-based assessments for DFID and a land and social protection paper for FAO.

PhD Sociology, Cambridge University (1986)
MSc Development Studies, Bath University (1979)
BA (Hons) Social Anthropology, University of Kent (1974)