Governments often face capacity problems and view the Scheme as an effective means of employing well-qualified and highly motivated economists. Fellows become line employees within the civil service making this a highly flexible form of technical support.

The host government draws up Terms of Reference for each two-year posting. The success of the Scheme and the respect it has gained from governments is demonstrated by the consistently high demand for Fellows and by the degree of responsibility often entrusted to Fellows.

What do ODI Fellows do? >
Most Fellows are assigned to government ministries where they work as economists or planning officers. The posts call for a wide variety of both economic and administrative skills.

History of the Scheme >
The Fellowship Scheme was established in 1963. Since then, over 800 ODI Fellowships have been awarded, and the Scheme has worked in over 30 countries.

Administrative and financial arrangements >
Details of the responsibilities of ODI and the local employer in supporting Fellows sent abroad through the scheme.

How the Scheme is funded
The costs of employing each Fellow are shared between the recipient government and ODI, making this a unique form of technical support. ODI has secured funding for the Scheme through grants provided by the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK, AusAID and the World Bank Trust Fund.

Scheme administration

The ODI Fellowship Scheme is managed by a team of three people: Robin Sherbourne (Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme), Susan Barron (Programme Manager) and Darren Lomas (Programme Officer).

Robin Sherbourne - Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme

Robin Sherbourne has been appointed Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme from 1 November 2012. As Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme, Robin is responsible for overseeing the application, interview and selection procedures, leading the annual placement tours to Fellowship Scheme countries, allocating Fellows to posts, and negotiating with governments who want to participate in the Scheme. Robin is a passionate believer in the usefulness of economists in government and the need to build capacity in policy design and implementation within government structures.

After a first degree in physics from Magdalen College Oxford and four years living and working in Germany and Spain, he returned to the UK to complete a master’s degree in economics at LSE. In 1991 he became the first ODI Fellow in Namibia and ended up extending his Fellowship by a further two years with support from the Overseas Development Administration (the precursor to DfID). He spent two years as an economic advisor with the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions before returning to Namibia in 1997. He spent 15 years in Namibia teaching at the university, establishing a research institute, a current affairs magazine, working as an analyst for a stockbroking firm, advising the Namibian central bank, and acting as group economist for Old Mutual Namibia. Since 2007 Robin has once again become closely associated with the Fellowship Scheme sitting on the interview panel and participating in the placement tours.

Susan Barron – Programme Manager, ODI Fellowship Scheme

Susan joined the ODI Fellowship Scheme in 1999 after spending several years working for the civil service in Ireland before moving to the UK to take up a post with the British Council where she worked on project management for projects based in the Middle East and North Africa. Although not an economist by training, Susan studied history and politics at University College Dublin. Little did she realise when studying the “Politics of Divided Societies” that she would find herself a regular visitor to the case studies she covered back then.

Susan is the Programme Manager for the Scheme and, along with Darren Lomas the Programme Officer, is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Scheme. She also takes the lead on all matters financial – from making payments to Fellows, drawing up budgets, liaising with clients on forecasting and invoicing and helping to identify new funding opportunities. Susan is also part of the recruitment team for the Scheme and sits on the interview panel where her area of specialisation relates to motivation and assessing the suitability of candidates for a role as a civil servant within a developing country context.

Susan’s time at ODI means that there are few questions relating to the Scheme that she isn’t able to answer and the well-being and success of the Fellows during their posting is a key element of her role within the Fellowship Scheme Team.

Darren Lomas - Programme Officer, ODI Fellowship Scheme

Darren joined the ODI Fellowship Scheme in 2007, following a year supporting Communications and the RAPID programme at ODI. Prior to his time at ODI, he worked at the British Library for six years in Customer Services, Learning and Development, and on the LIFE Project, a collaboration with UCL that analysed and predicted the lifecycle costs for the preservation of digital information. Before this, he studied Linguistics at UCL.

Along with Susan Barron, Darren is responsible for the day-to-day management of the scheme, with particular responsibility for organising the recruitment and marketing of the scheme, as well as the insurance for Fellows placed overseas. During the recruitment process and throughout the subsequent two-year Fellowship postings Darren is usually the first point of contact for Fellowship matters. During the interview process he runs the group assessments and during the course of the year handles a range of issues relating to Fellows and their postings.