Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien was previously the director of the aid effectiveness team. He came to Oxfam after spending five years in Afghanistan, where he advised the senior economic adviser to the president and two ministers of finance on aid coordination, development planning, and policy reform. He was the senior international adviser to the Afghan government in the creation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (interim) and the Afghanistan Compact. Prior to that, he worked for CARE International as their Afghanistan advocacy coordinator and Africa policy adviser. Previously, O'Brien was the president of Echoing Green, which uses venture philanthropy principles to support social entrepreneurs, and a litigator in New York for Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He is the co-founder of the Legal Resources Foundation in Kenya and the founder of the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium in Afghanistan. O'Brien has a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School and has published on humanitarian policy, human rights, and emerging trends in development.