Oli Brown

Senior Advisor
Chatham House
Kenya

Apr 9, 2019

Oli Brown is an Associate Fellow with the UK think tank Chatham House (also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs) as well as being a freelance consultant. He focuses on issues of climate change, environmental politics, cooperation around natural resources, peacebuilding, and conflict mediation. He has worked on issues of conflict, resilience, and natural resource management across diverse landscapes and countries, including Sierra Leone, Kenya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Bolivia.

Oli particularly focuses on creating a policy space for action around natural resources, climate, and peace. He was part of the team that developed the report, “A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks,” commissioned by members of the G7 for the 2015 G7 Summit. Recently he’s been involved in an assessment of climate change and insecurity around Lake Chad. Oli’s work particularly blends fieldwork with policy solutions and seeks to go beyond identifying linkages between conflict and climate change, to craft and implement solutions.

He holds a M.A. in Anthropology & Modern History from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, a M.A. in International Studies from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a M.S. in Environmental Management from the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK. Between 2014 and 2018 he coordinated UN Environment’s Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Programme, one of its seven thematic priority areas. Between 2010 and 2012 he worked on natural resource management and peacebuilding in Sierra Leone, where he ran a small country program for UN Environment. Between 2004 and 2010 he was a Senior Researcher and Manager at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and before that he was a Policy Researcher for Oxfam GB.

Reflecting on the creation of policy spaces, he says, “Over the last few years, issues of natural resources and peace have expanded tremendously in the attention that they command and the policy space it can fill. My work has focused on how you frame these issues, and how you can make space for them to be taken up in the policy sphere.” In another example of expanding the space for policy around natural resources and conflict resolution, Oli has been part of a group that worked with the Panel of the Wise, a consultative body of the African Union, to put the idea of mediation of resource disputes around oil, land, and water on the agenda of African leaders. The fifth major report of the Panel, which will be released later in 2019, will provide recommendations around issues of natural resources conflict mediation.

Oli sees the Environmental Peacebuilding Association as an opportunity for mutually supportive and positive interactions around academia, policy, and practice. He says, “People come to it from very different angles. It is a place for people to intellectually meet, share ideas, share experiences, challenge assumptions, and make the jump from the policy dimension to the lived reality of people in these contexts. It’s an opportunity to keep finding small and big ways to take some of the ideas around natural resources and peace and make a difference in people’s lives.”