Cooke, Rodney

Rodney Cooke is currently the Director of the Policy and Technical Advisory Division, IFAD, since 2000. He holds a BSc. Biochemistry, PhD. in collaboration with Pfizer International and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He has key expertise and experience in R&D management and technology transfer and training programmes; institutional appraisal, corporate planning and management of change; resource mobilisation and funding; project identification, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. From 1995 to 2000, he served as the Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA, based in The Netherlands) of the EU/ACP Lomé Convention (now Cotonou Convention). CTA has the remit to promote agricultural and rural development by building local capacity. Previously, he held various ODA/DFID (UK bilateral development Agency) roles and most recently as Deputy Director of Natural Resources Institute in charge of the Resource Assessment and Farming Systems Programme.