Robin was the first ODI Fellow to be placed in Namibia. After 15 uninterrupted years in Namibia, he returned to the UK in November 2012 to take up a new post as Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme.

Robin holds a BA in physics from Magdalen College Oxford and an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics in the UK. He was the first Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Fellow to be placed in Namibia starting in 1991 as a researcher at the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit and as an economic advisor in the National Planning Commission until 1995. He then spent two years as an economic advisor in the UK’s Department of the Environment before returning to Namibia. After writing a weekly column in The Namibian between 1998 and 2000 and introducing a course at the University of Namibia on the Namibian economy, he helped develop the research programme of local stock-broking firm IJG Securities. In 2000 he established the Windhoek-based Institute for Public Policy Research and in 2004 the current affairs monthly Insight Namibia magazine. He worked briefly as an advisor to the Research Department of the Bank of Namibia in 2008 before becoming the first Group Economist for Old Mutual, Nedbank and NedCapital in Namibia. Since 2007 Robin has been an active participant in the ODI Fellowship Scheme sitting on the interview panel which selects fellows and conducting placement tours across Africa. After 15 uninterrupted years in Namibia, he returned to the UK to take up a new post as Head of the ODI Fellowship Scheme on 1 November 2012.