Antonio Donini is Visiting Fellow at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University and Research Associate at the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. He works on issues relating to humanitarianism, the future of humanitarian action and migration. From 2002 to 2004, Antonio was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. He has worked for 26 years in the United Nations in research, evaluation, and humanitarian capacities. Antonio’s last post was as Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan (1999-2002). Before going to Afghanistan he was chief of the Lessons Learned Unit at OCHA, where he managed a program of independent studies on the effectiveness of relief efforts in complex emergencies.
Antonio has published widely on evaluation, humanitarian, and UN reform issues. In 2004, he co-edited the volume Nation-Building Unraveled? Aid, Peace, and Justice in Afghanistan (Kumarian Press); he was also the main author of The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action (Kumarian Press). Antonio has published numerous reports and articles exploring the implications of the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq for the future of humanitarian action, on local perceptions of humanitarian agencies and on humanitarian policy issues. He is co-author of Planning from the Future: Is the humanitarian system fit for purpose? (www.planningfromthefuture.org), a major 2016 report that examines blockages in the humanitarian system and the potential for a major overhaul.