Robin Mearns

Social Development Department, World Bank, USA

Lead Social Development Specialist, Social Development
Department, The World Bank. Robin Mearns is a geographer specializing in the
social and institutional dimensions of natural resource management and
community-based risk management in developing countries. He is currently team
leader for the Social Dimensions of Climate Change in the World Bank. He has
spent most of his 11 years in the World Bank to date as team leader for
operations, analytical and policy advisory activities in East Asia and Pacific,
Latin America and Caribbean (LAC), and South Asia (SAR) regions, primarily on
community-driven development, natural resource management, land reform, and
participatory poverty assessment. He recently spent four years with the rural
team in the Vietnam country office, where he also served as country sector
coordinator for social development. This followed four years leading the Bank's
rural development program in Mongolia, and shorter assignments in LAC and SAR.
Formerly Chair of the Bank-wide NRM thematic group, he is also a practitioner of
participatory learning and action methods and approaches. Prior to joining the
Bank, he was a Fellow of IDS, University of Sussex (1990-97) and a Research
Associate with IIED, London (1987-89). He holds PhD and MA degrees in Geography
(University of Cambridge), an MPhil in Development Studies (University of
Sussex), and has published extensively on environment and sustainable
development.