Marcus Cox, PhD

Marcus Cox is an Agulhas Director with over 20 years’ experience in international development. An international lawyer by training, he began his international career in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was instrumental in designing the mechanism for restoring the property rights of those displaced by the conflict. He was a founding member and senior editor of the European Stability Initiative, a think tank specialising in Southeastern Europe, and completed a Ph.D. at Cambridge University on the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. As a consultant, he specialised in aid effectiveness, leading the independent monitoring team of the Hanoi Core Statement in Vietnam. He has carried out numerous reviews and evaluation on themes such as security and justice, trafficking in persons, institution building and post-conflict reconstruction. He is an expert in political economy analysis, having led PEA studies on a range of countries, sectors and issues. He has led a large number of influential ICAI reviews, including on UK security and justice work, budget support operations, the Conflict Pools, the UK response to the Arab Spring and DFID’s approach to value for money. Since 2015, he has served as Technical Director for the ICAI Service Provider consortium, responsible for quality standards across the review programme. Marcus is a skilled writer and editor whose written work is in considerable demand. He authors the AfDB’s annual report on its development results and in 2019 helped to prepare the Bank’s case to donors for a general capital increase.

Governance, conflict, justice, security, peace building, capacity building, human rights, political economy analysis, evaluation methodology

Marcus is a keen amateur musician, performing regularly with the City of London Choir.