Thomas Dichter is a cultural anthropologist (Ph.D. University of Chicago) who has studied culture and social change during a career that spans 50 years. His primary interest has been international development. He has worked in over 60 developing countries on four continents, as a Peace Corps volunteer, a Peace Corps country director in Yemen, vice president of TechnoServe, program officer of the Aga Khan Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, a researcher on development issues for a think tank, and a staff member of a for-profit USAID contractor. Since 1994 he has been an independent consultant, including for the World Bank, UNDP, IFAD, USAID and the Asian Development Bank. He is the author of Despite Good Intentions; Why Development Assistance to the Third World has Failed (2003) and co-author of What’s Wrong with Microfinance (2007). His views on development, culture change, and other issues have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, Prospect Magazine, the Harvard International Review, the Foreign Service Journal, and International Policy Digest, among others.
