Chris Mahony

is a lawyer and political economist. He also works on the development finance utility of emergent data sources and methods in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, the Poverty and Equity Global Practice, and the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice at the World Bank where he previously worked in the Independent Evaluation Group and the Governance Global Practice. During his 17 year career, he has served as Strategic Policy and Rule of Law Adviser and Global Focal Point on Transitional Justice at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York and as founding Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights at Auckland University Law School. He has taught courses in Law and International Relations at Peking University, Oxford University and Auckland University. In 2008, he directed the design of Sierra Leone’s domestic witness protection program. He was admitted to the bar of the High Court of New Zealand in 2006 where he appeared for the Crown in criminal and refugee matters. In 2003, aged 21, he worked in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where, among other work, he drafted the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations on governance and corruption, and its ‘Historical antecedents to the conflict’ chapter.

Dr. Mahony holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Otago, as well as a Master’s in African Studies (M.Sc.) and a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford. While studying he played rugby professionally in New Zealand and the UK, including for the Auckland NPC side (winning the 2007 NPC). He won four rugby Blues for Oxford University.