An agricultural economist by training, Christopher Nelson has worked in evaluation of development projects for almost 20 years. Prior to working with the World Bank, he was the Director of Evaluation in the Operations Unit at AusAID (the Australian bilateral aid program) where he was responsible for developing and implementing an independent self-evaluation system.

Christopher previously worked and lived in Southern Africa where he had evaluation roles in the academic and NGO sectors. He has a PhD in Evaluation and a Master of Agricultural Development Economics. Christopher has extensive expertise in poverty research management, learning through program cycles, project evaluation and appropriate development strategies. His primary research interests have focused on learning theories and their application to development aid and project interventions.