Moazzam Malik
Biography
Moazzam Malik was most recently Director General, Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). He was previously Director General, Country Programmes for the Department for International Development, overseeing the UK’s bilateral development partnerships around the world and was the Senior Responsible Officer for all UK government policy on Africa. Prior to that, from 2014 to 2019, he was British Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and ASEAN.
Prior to his appointment as Ambassador, Moazzam was an Acting Director General in the UK Department for International Development. He oversaw the UK’s engagement in the Middle East, Western Asia and led the UK relationship with multilateral organisations.
From 2010 to 2013, Moazzam was DFID Director for Western Asia and Stabilisation. He led some 300 staff with a budget of around US$750 million working across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan; regional programmes spanning Central and South Asia; and the UK’s Stabilisation Unit which works on conflict and insecurity issues. From 2006 to 2010, Moazzam was DFID Director for UN, Conflict and Humanitarian issues, managing the UK’s relationship with the UN development system, multilateral reform, major humanitarian operations, and policy work on conflict and security issues. In both roles, Moazzam played an active role in senior management bodies in DFID and top level policy fora in Whitehall and internationally.
Earlier in his DFID career, Moazzam led work on the 2006 UK White Paper on international development ‘Making Governance Work for the Poor’. Between 2003 and 2005, Moazzam was Principal Private Secretary to Baroness Valerie Amos and then the Right Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for International Development. As Principal Private Secretary, Moazzam worked with Ministers and colleagues on a wide range of international issues, including the G8 ‘Make Poverty History’ Summit at Gleneagles. He has also managed DFID programmes in Pakistan, Iraq and on trade policy.
Prior to moving to Jakarta, Moazzam sat on the Advisory Board to the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict, was a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Group on the Central Emergency Revolving Fund, served as an OECD DAC Peer Reviewer for Sweden, and a trustee of Goodweave UK, an NGO working to eradicate child labour from the South Asian rug industry.
Outside government, Moazzam has worked as a consultant economist advising large UK corporate clients and the World Bank amongst others; a researcher at the London School of Economics and the Overseas Development Institute; an adviser on monetary and foreign exchange policy in the Central Bank of Uganda; and run a production engineering business and an urban regeneration NGO based in London.
Moazzam is a graduate of the London School of Economics, holds a Masters degree from Oxford University, and a Chartered Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the ACCA.
Previous roles in government
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Director General, Africa
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Director General, Country Programmes
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British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste