The author

Until 2006 he managed the development cooperation policy unit for the UN system at DESA, in New York. In that position, he handled to preparation of the Secretary-General reports for the triennial policy review of the operational activities for development of the UN system (TCPR), which were discussed at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the General Assembly. He assisted national delegations during the inter-governmental negotiations for the formulation of UN resolutions.  He undertook several missions in developing countries, interacting with headquarters and field offices of UN agencies. Proposed guidelines for coordination system for their cooperation activities (CSN e UNDAF) and their pilot implementation. 

After retiring from the United Nations in 2006 he carried on assignments to develop country programming at FAO, taking care of its pilot implementation in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, and Afghanistan. He was the team leader of an inter-regional evaluation on the effectiveness of FAO programs in post-conflict and post-emergency situations.

Previously, he carried on various assignment as UN official within the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs of the UN Secretariat in New York, which he joined in 1984, in charge of the development analysis of the African region. In 1988 he became UNDP Senior Field Economist for Mozambique and Swaziland (current Eswatini). In 1991 he joined back the activities of the UN Secretariat in New York, at  the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). He analyzed global processes of disintegration and integration for the 1993 World Social Report, before moving, in 1995, to the unit that he headed starting from 2001 until he retired.

Massimo D’Angelo was born in Rome in 1946. He graduated from the University of Rome in 1970 with a final dissertation on economic theory.  Between 1971 and 1973 he carried on a voluntary service assignment as professor of economics at the University of Piura in Peru within the framework of a bilateral technical cooperation program. Upon returning to Italy at the Institute of Political Economy of the Economics Department of The University of Rome (Sapienza), he became researcher and assisted the Keynesian professor Fausto Vicarelli until 1984.

In those years he carried on intensive research and professional advisory assistance in the area of international development cooperation with institutions such as IPALMO, IAI e ICU, the Service for Technical Cooperation with Developing Countries of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and further on, with the Department of Development Cooperation, publishing studies on industrial and agricultural cooperation within the Mediterranean region and formulated proposals for new system for programming and evaluating cooperation activities, with comparative  studies on aid management in the OECD area. He participated in several evaluation missions for government projects in Latin America, North Africa, and the Middle East.