David Perkins M.Soc.Sc., (Development Economist: Agriculture, Mining, and Transport Expert) Development economist with extensive experience as a regional economic development planner. Has extensive knowledge of the Southern and East African natural resource sectors gained through his experience in several counties in those regions while Programme Coordinator for the Regional Spatial Development Initiatives Programme at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and as Spatial Development Specialist at the NEPAD Planning & Coordination Agency (an agency of the African Union). He has also undertaken a variety of short-term consulting and advisory assignments principally in agriculture, mining and climate change.

Mr Perkins is experienced in supervising work programmes aimed at identifying, appraising, and facilitating interdependent private sector investments in agriculture, mining, and other natural resource sectors, in the context of related public and parastatal agency investments in large-scale transport and energy infrastructure. He has extensive experience in considering livelihood diversification strategies as a critical climate change response and has worked with emerging commercial farmers to improve water access and the efficiency of its utilisation, as a drought mitigation intervention in various southern African countries.

Mr Perkins is also keenly interested in the economics of how the agriculture and mining sectors impact on and are impacted by climate change, particularly in developing countries where economic and social impact often depends on being able to maximise exploitation of the full range of linkages in host and adjacent local economies. He has also recently project managed and co-authored a gendered analysis of employment and skills in the large-scale mining sector in South Africa as part of an 11-country Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) baseline study.