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Ayodele Odusola is the Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in South Africa.

Prior, he was Chief Economist and Head of the Strategy and Analysis Team for UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA). He provides strategic leadership on development strategy, policy analysis and knowledge products on Africa.  Further, he coordinates the preparation of regional flagship reports for RBA, including the Africa Human Development Report, the African Economic Outlook, Africa MDG/SDGs reports and the book Income Inequality Trends in sub-Saharan Africa: Divergence, Determinants, and Consequences (which he co-edited) as well as strategic policy notes and occasional policy papers. Dr. Odusola provides intellectual leadership to SDG acceleration frameworks in sub-Saharan Africa, managing the network of Senior Economists in UNDP Africa Country Offices and providing strategic advice on policy matters to the RBA Director. He provides technical leadership on Roundtables to mobilize partnership and finance for the implementation of national development plans and visions across African countries. He is deeply involved in advising African countries development planning and visioning, structural economic transformation and the future of Africa’s development. 

He led UNDP’s strategic partnership with pan African organizations like the African Union, the Pan African Parliament, NEPAD, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Development Bank. Since 2014, he has been leading the technical engagement with the Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s Development and the International Conference of Africa’s Emergence. Dr Odusola also coordinates technical partnership with OECD on development issues in Africa. 

He is the Chair of the UNDP Corporate Technical Team on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs). He coordinated from UNDP’s side the support to the 2011 Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), the organization of the 2014 Ministerial Meeting on LDCs in Cotonou and the organization of the 2016 Midterm Review conference of the IPoA in Antalya as well as coordinating UNDP’s support to LDC graduation process. He led the UN mission on the Angolan Graduation.  Further, he has supported many African governments on the preparation of national development plans, strategies and visions.

As an economist, Dr. Odusola focuses on dynamics of macroeconomics and development economics pertaining to the African continent. Prior to Chief Economist, he served as the RBA MDGs Adviser for Sub-Saharan Africa, after his tenure as Economic Adviser in UNDP South Africa, where he played a key role in developing partnerships on the MDGs.  Before his time in South Africa, he was a Senior Economist in UNDP Nigeria, supporting the preparation of fiscal responsibility legislation at national and state levels; coordinated fiscal policy project and expansion of tax database; local, regional and national MDGs; and human development reports as well as other knowledge products. His work has taken him all regions in Africa and all continents of the world.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr. Odusola worked with the Presidency of Nigeria (1993-2005); and from 1999 to 2005, he served as the Director  of the Research and Macroeconomic Training Programme under the President’s Economic Management Think-Tank. He has worked in several African countries.  Served as Senior Consultant on fiscal policy management to several organizations like the World Bank, the West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), and the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI).

Academically, Dr. Odusola has lectured several universities in Africa and has published over 50 articles in national and international journals, editing and authoring books as well as technical reports. In 2001, he was the African Visiting Scholar to the International Monetary Fund and has lectured in several universities.

His research is currently in the top 10% of Authors on Social Science Research Network by total new downloads.  His article on  Fiscal Space, Poverty and Inequality in Africa, published in African Development Review, is one of the journal's top downloaded recent papers

Mr. Odusola is a Nigerian national and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.