Social Science Research Council

Associate Director

Jim Della-Giacoma joined CPPF in October 2006. Previously, he was a senior advisor on global citizen participation programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C. From 2000 – 2003 Jim help set up NDI’s office in Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) managing programs related to civic participation, security sector reform, public opinion research and the encouragement of peaceful political debate. In 1999 – 2000 he served in the Office of the Special Representative to the Secretary-General in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) as well as the mission’s representative in Jakarta. Previously, he worked on the 1999 East Timor referendum in the UN Department of Political Affairs in New York. In addition to consulting with the Asia Foundation, World Bank and other UN agencies, Jim had a diverse career in journalism, including four years as a foreign correspondent in Jakarta with Agence France Presse and Reuters. He has written and worked on a number of public opinion research reports on post-conflict countries including Timor Lorosa’e is Our Nation, Carrying the People's Aspirations (with Alarico da Costa Ximenes) and Government Within Reach (on East Timor) as well as A Society in Transition (Afghanistan) and War is Behind Us Now (Liberia). He also wrote a short history of the U.N.'s involvement in East Timor, Self-Determination Through Popular Consultation, and The Anti-Corruption Handbook (with Fred Wherry) for the World Bank. He holds a MA in Asian Studies from the University of New South Wales and a BEc in Political Economy from the University of Sydney.