Noam Unger

Noam Unger is the senior manager of the Brookings Institution's Foreign Aid Reform Project.

Before coming to Brookings, he served from 2003-2007 at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he worked on humanitarian affairs, reconstruction, conflict transformation, and interagency coordination. In addition to his prior work with USAID in Sri Lanka, and with Save the Children (U.S.) in Haiti, his overseas experience also includes his time as a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow, when Mr. Unger carried out an independent ethnography project in Central America, South America, West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has also previously worked in the private sector, focusing on software research and design as a linguistics analyst for StreamSage, Inc.

Mr. Unger's awards include a Department of State Individual Superior Honor Award for his efforts related to crisis-response in Darfur, and a USAID Superior Group Award – issued by former Presidents William J. Clinton and George H.W. Bush – for his performance in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004. He holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Religion from Swarthmore College.

Analysis and Commentary

U.S. Foreign Assistance: Reform to Lead in the 21^st Century, Los Angeles Times (June 16, 2008)

A New Face of Hunger Should Prompt a New Approach to Foreign Aid, The Brookings Institution (May 2, 2008)

Foreign Assistance Reform: Then, Now and Around the Bend, InterAction's Monday Developments (July 2007)