Li Xiaoyun

Professor, College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University; Dean of China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (CISSCA) Scholars

Prof. Li Xiaoyun is the Dean of China institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (CISSCA) and distinguished professor in College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University. He is Chair of the Network of Southern Think Tanks (NeST), and China International Development Research Network. He used to be the Director of OECD-DAC China Group, vising professor at London School of Economics and Political Science and Oslo University and visiting fellow at Germany Institute for Development. He is a senior advisor for the Chinese Government, the World Bank (WB), United Nations (UN), German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), The Department for International Development (DFID) of United Kingdom, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and many other international development organizations.

 He has founded or led several independently operated organizations including research institutions and nonprofit organizations. In 2017 he initiated the China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture, the first Chinese think tank in SSC agriculture; in 2015 he founded Action Against Poverty, a grass-root philanthropy organization whose anti-poverty project in a Yunnan village has become a national model; in 1998 he initiated the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University, China’s first college for development education, and has been relentlessly advancing the mainstreaming of development studies in Chinese higher education system; from 1989 to 1994, he led the China-Germany Center for Integrated Agricultural Development, Germany’s first aid project in China.