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Appointment of Steve Bass as Senior Fellow for Environment and Natural Resources at IIED

London, February 3rd, 2005 -- Steve Bass, Head of Profession for Environment with DFID, will join the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) at the end of March as Senior Fellow for Environment and Natural Resources.

In this valuable new role, Steve will take forward work to make sure that efforts to reduce poverty are firmly linked to environmental considerations. This will mean building skills and capacity for environmental policy and management in many developing countries. Steve’s programme will emphasize ways to share learning amongst developing country professionals, and offer guidance to international initiatives, so that the global commitment to poverty reduction is matched by an understanding of long-term sustainability . Given DFID’s strong commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they will provide funding for IIED to pursue this challenging agenda. Much of the work will focus on the 7th of these 8 goals which aims to ‘Ensure environmental sustainability’. This covers work on national sustainable development strategies, improving provision of water and sanitation, reversing the decline in biological diversity, and securing significant improvements in the lives of slum dwellers.

By leading this work, Steve Bass will strengthen joint activity between colleagues at IIED and DFID, as the basis to explore future partnerships. Steve will also help bridge work on sustainable natural resource management with other key areas of IIED’s work, such as on urban development, institutions and governance, global processes, trade and markets. This bridging role is emblematic of how environmental dimensions need to be brought more centrally into the development debate.

During Steve's time at DFID he has made a major contribution to the environmental agenda, including the establishment of the Sustainable Development Group in Policy Division. In his new role, Steve will continue to work closely with DFID on environmental issues and will commit part of his time to work with DFID’s Policy Division and Central Research Department.

About IIED
The International Institute for Environment and Development is an international research institute, working to promote sustainable global development. Set up by Barbara Ward in 1971, and based in London, we work with a network of collaborators around the world. IIED has a well-established reputation for independence, providing cutting-edge ideas to push policy forward in favour of fairer patterns of development.

About Steve Bass
Steve Bass is an environmental planner and forester with 21 years experience working principally in Western Asia, the Caribbean and southern Africa. He joined IIED in 1990 as Associate Director of Forestry and Land Use and has specialised in participatory environmental and natural resource policy. He has also amassed considerable experience in institutional development. His recent work has included developing and assessing market-based instruments, notably forest certification.

In 1999, he was appointed Director of Programmes at IIED with responsibility for overall strategic programme development, research planning and quality control. He has been on advisory boards for groups as diverse as UNEP, WWF, Shell Canada and Oxford University, as well as editorial boards. In September 2003, he was appointed Chief Environment Adviser at the UK Government’s Department for International Development.

For further information, please contact:

Camilla Toulmin (Director), tel: +44 (0)20 7388 2117, camilla.toulmin@iied.org.

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