David Jackson has more than 20 years experience in Public Sector Governance, Planning and Budgeting at local and central levels and has published papers on the political and technical challenges of decentralization in Africa, where he has worked since the early 1990ies. He has extensive hands-on and theoretical expertise in good governance and public management issues, in particular decentralised planning and budgeting, decentralisation policy, and urban and rural planning and management. He has team leader and project management experience, including from long-term decentralisation implementation projects. He holds a BSc from the London School of Economics and a MA in Development Planning from the University of East Anglia. He has qualifications at Post Graduate level in Public Policy and Management and is currently studying for a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.

Mr Jackson began his career working in Urban Planning in London local government. Inspired by the policies of the Greater London Council of the 1980s he was part of a local government era that pioneered the linkages between physical planning, economic development and community involvement. Mr Jackson was instrumental in securing community benefit from central London property developments and the Channel Tunnel rail link between London and Paris.

In Mozambique, in the early 1990s, he worked on the Beira City Structure Plan and was responsible for a project to computerize the land registry and allocate housing for the refugee population. From 1994 he moved to the Ministry of Planning and Finance (financed by UNDP) and was responsible for developing guidelines and methodologies on the incorporation of the province and district into the planning and budgeting system. He then worked as Chief Technical Advisor for the $8m pilot project (Netherlands and UNCDF) to introduce district level planning, financing and participatory governance, which led to legislative change and is now replicated nationally as government policy.

Returning to the United Kingdom in 2001 Mr Jackson began a career as an international consultant and has carried out assignments in Egypt, East Timor, Uganda, Rwanda, Angola and Mozambique as well as presenting papers on development issues.

His principle interest is in exploring how governance and decentralisation reforms can strengthen the engagement between the citizen and the state, particularly at local levels.

Publications:

In addition to numerous official documents for clients, David Jackson has published the following -

2004, Jackson, Salamao e Bazima. Descentralização, planeamento e sistema orçamental em Moçambique. Ministerio do Plano e Finanças, Maputo, Moçambique; Principia, Publicações Universitárias e Cientificas, Cascais, Portugal.

2003, Jackson and Lambo, Institutional Capacity Building and Training for District Planning, presented at "International Conference for Capacity Building of Local Government in Mozambique". Ministry of State Administration and Swiss Development Cooperation. Maputo, Mozambique.

2002, Jackson, Local Governance Approach to Social Reintegrationa and Economic Recovery in Post Conflict Countries: The view from Mozambique. UNCDF/UNBCPR/ Institute of Public Adminstration conference on "A Local Governance approach to Post Conflict Recovery". New York, United States of America.

Employment Record:

2001 - Wise Owls Organisation, London (Director and Principle Consultant)

2004 - 2005, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Extra Academic Teaching Assistant)

1998 – 2001, United Nations Capital Development Fund, Mozambique (Chief Technical Advisor/Project Manager - Decentralised Planning and Financing Project)

1994 – 1998, Ministry of Planning and Finance, Mozambique (Advisor - provincial planning and development)

1991 – 1994, Beira Executive Council, Mozambique (Planning advisor - urban planning) Beira City Council

1987 – 1991, Waterloo Community Development Group, London (urban planning and development planning)

Education:

London University (SOAS), 2002, PhD
The Political Economy of Resource Allocation in Mozambique.

London University (SOAS), 1999 - 2001, MSc (part I - Public Policy and Management with emphasis on Public Finance Management, this work was transformed into the PhD research above).

Bristol Polytechnic, 1988 – 1999, Voc. Training (Day release postgraduate course in Town and Country Planning - known internationally as physical planning)

University of East Anglia, 1986-1987, MA Development Planning

London School of Economics, 1981-1986, B.Sc. Geography