Massimo Tommasoli

Global Programs Director and Permanent Observer for International IDEA to the United Nations

Massimo Tommasoli is Permanent Observer for International IDEA to the UN. Prior to that he has been IDEA’s Director of Operations from 2004-2007. From 1999 to 2003 Mr. Tommasoli has been Head of the Good Governance and Conflict Prevention Unit in the Development Co-operation Directorate (Development Assistance Committee – DAC Secretariat) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In this capacity he led the Secretariat work of the DAC Networks on “Good governance and capacity development” (GOVNET) and on “Conflict, peace and development cooperation” (CPDC). He combines multilateral and bilateral experience, having worked in UNESCO and – as senior policy advisor – in the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he has also been a member of the Technical Evaluation Unit of the Steering Committee for Development Cooperation. He has evaluation and field work experience (through both short- and long-term field assignments) in the New Independent States (Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan), Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania), and Latin America (Brazil, Colombia). Lecturer at Italian Universities and international training centres, Mr Tommasoli is author of seven books, many essays in edited books and articles in social and political science journals. Among his publications are “Nel nome dello sviluppo. Politiche di reinsediamento e conflitti in Africa orientale” (Carocci, Rome, 2013); “Politiche di cooperazione internazionale. Analisi e valutazione” (Carocci, Rome, 2013); “Lo sviluppo partecipativo. Analisi sociale e logiche di pianificazione” (Carocci, Rome, 2001) (“Participatory Development. Social Analysis and the Rationale for Planning”), translated into Spanish (Iepala Editorial, Madrid, 2003) and French (Karthala, Paris, 2004). He edited “Democracy, Peace and Security: The Role of the UN”, (United Nations, UNDP, IDEA, New York, 2010). Mr Tommasoli holds a doctorat at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) of Paris with a dissertation on participatory development in the Horn of Africa.