Peter Batchelor of South Africa was appointed as UNDP Iraq Country Director on 1 September 2011. Prior to this appointment he held the post of UNDP Iraq Deputy Country Director.
Before moving to UNDP Iraq in early 2010 Mr. Batchelor was the Chief of the Conflict
Prevention and Recovery Team in UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery
based in Geneva and New York. In this role he managed the provision of UNDP’s technical
assistance to more than 50 conflict-affected crisis countries. Between 2008 and
2010 he also served as the co-chair of the OECD’s International Network on Conflict
and Fragility based in Paris, France.
Before UNDP in 2004 Mr. Batchelor was Director of the Small Arms Survey project,
based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva,
Switzerland. Between 1995 and 1999 he worked as a Senior Researcher at the Centre
for Conflict Resolution at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. During this
period he was also an advisor to the Mandela Government on Economic and Security
issues.
Mr. Batchelor has written and published widely on global and African economic and
security issues, including three volumes on ‘Demilitarisation and Peace-Building
in Southern Africa’ (co-edited with Kees Kingma), published in 2004.
Born in 1967, Mr. Batchelor holds a BA in Political Studies and Economics from the
University of Cape Town, and an MA and a PHD in Economics from the University of
Cambridge.
He is married and has one child.