Noam Unger

Noam Unger is the director of the Sustainable Development and Resilience Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a senior fellow with the Project on Prosperity and Development. Previously, he served on the executive team and as a vice president at InterAction, the largest U.S.-based coalition of nongovernmental organizations focused on international development, humanitarian action, peacebuilding, global health, and democracy. Among other things, he oversaw InterAction’s work on public policy, advocacy, civil society, and the NGO Climate Compact. Unger also served in leadership positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the director of the Policy Office, acting deputy assistant administrator, and the agency’s acting chief strategy officer. Other government roles included working as a USAID country desk officer, and as a U.S. Department of State humanitarian analyst and foreign affairs officer. He was also a vice president for Global Citizen Year. From 2007 to 2012, he worked at Brookings, where, as a global economy and development fellow, he directed the Foreign Aid Reform Project, cofounded the Development Assistance and Governance Initiative, and managed the annual Brookings Blum Roundtable. Unger earned a patent as a coinventor while working for StreamSage, a private sector software company. He holds a master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He graduated from Swarthmore College with honors before spending a formative year on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in Central America, South America, West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.