Melinda Bohannon 2023 Speaker

Director General, Humanitarian and Development

Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)

Biography

“Melinda is the interim Director General, Humanitarian and Development at the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). She was previously FCDO Strategy Director from September 2020 to July 2023, and before that Strategy Director at the Department for International Development (DFID).

Melinda joined the Civil Service in 1999 as an economist and has worked in DFID, FCO and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) since that time, as well as in the private sector and research. She has covered a range of international geographic roles including on the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, the former Soviet Union and China.

From 2013 to 2015 Melinda led the UK team negotiating the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, supporting the UK Envoy and Prime Minister. She was subsequently head of DFID’s Economic Growth and Resilience Department, managing economic transformation programmes around the world.

Melinda has a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and a MSC in Development Studies with Economics from the London School of Economics.”