Andrew Spezowka is Portfolio Manager for resilience and sustainable growth at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he has been based in Lilongwe, Malawi since 2016. Active in international environment and development issues for over twenty years, Andrew works on the political and social factors that drive or constrain pro-poor change, inclusive economic development, and resilience. At UNDP Malawi, he manages programming that cuts across inclusive business development, social entrepreneurship, renewable energy, climate finance, and resilience to livelihood shocks.
Previously, he was International Technical Advisor on green growth and climate finance, based in Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (2014-16), where he led analytics on the introduction of new green levees in the transport and aviation sectors, Senior Technical Advisor at the World Bank in Vietnam working on social accountability and aid coordination, Manager of Global Programmes and Initiatives in the Environment and Food Security Bureau at Global Affairs Canada, Deputy Country Director and Team Leader for food security and agricultural growth based at the Canadian Embassy in Ethiopia (2007-2010), and Country Representative for the Canadian International Development Agency based in Nigeria (2003-2007). He has undertaken a number of assignments related to sustainability, local economic development, and climate change, with USAID in Nigeria, the Norwegian Development Fund in Sri Lanka, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Nepal, and for the Canadian Centre for International Education. He has produced numerous reports and articles on environment and sustainability issues, including authoring the global assessment for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examining the environmental policies and standards across bilateral development agencies and international financial institutions.
Andrew earned his M.Sc. in international environmental management at the University of Guelph and his bachelor’s degree at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and is pursuing professional studies at the Stockholm Resilience Institute. As a life-long learner, his interests cover agro-ecology, social impact investment, systems and resilience science, clean energy pathways, green design, and social protection.
