Robin Davies is the First Assistant Secretary of DFAT’s Global Health Division and concurrently the Head of DFAT’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. He is leading the implementation of Australia’s Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region and the Regional COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.
Robin was previously Associate Director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.
Robin worked at the former Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) for almost twenty years, both in Australia and overseas, including ten years as a member of its senior executive service. He was Australia’s delegate to the OECD Development Assistance Committee for 1999 to 2022 and managed Australia’s development cooperation program in Indonesia from 2003 to 2006. Until late 2011, he headed AusAID’s international programs and partnerships division.
Robin was Australia’s representative on the G20 Development Working Group from its establishment in 2010. He played an active role in shaping the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth and subsequent work on “growth with resilience”. As founding head of AusAID’s Sustainable Development Group from 2007 to 2009, he represented Australia in negotiations leading to the establishment of the multilateral Climate Investment Funds in 2008 and oversaw the development and implementation of a series of Australian climate change funding initiatives, including the International Forest Carbon Initiative and the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative.
Robin served on the board of UNICEF Australia from 2013 to 2017 and chaired its Programs, Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Robin holds an honours degree in philosophy from the Australian National University.