Vinod Thomas

Passionate about humanity’s imperative

towards achieving sustainable development

About Vinod

Renewable Energy Resources | Carbon Pricing | Cost Benefit Analysis |  Risk & Resilience  | Net-zero Carbon 2050 | Decarbonisation | Water Policy | Education | Agricultural Pricing |  Environmental Sustainability | Urban Strategy | Evaluation


Extensive experience in the study, teaching, and practice of development policy, including social and environmental policy and analysis. Leadership and hands-on roles in global finance and management, investment projects, and country policies. Analytical and operational contributions in project design, ethical business, and independent evaluation. Track record of excellence in teaching, writing, and outreach. Demonstrated leadership in inclusive and impactful teamwork. Part of networks of academia and practitioners in development and sustainability.

Books

Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change

Essential insights on the interaction between rising risks and raising the bar for resilience during the climate crisis.

From Inside Brazil: Development in a Land of Contrast

This book presents a strong agenda and action plan to achieve for Brazil both economic growth and improved welfare for its citizens.

The Quality of Growth

Economic growth is key to development both in its pace and also in its quality. 'The Quality of Growth' is a collection of essays in an ongoing research project.

Upcoming Events

How can Central Banks protect our citizens, our planet and our financial system? A discussion on how innovative monetary policy tools are the antidote to Fed inaction. 

 

A Beyond Bretton Woods and Green Central Banking discussion at Breton House.

Integrating Environmental and Socioeconomic Domains for Sustainability

 

Building on the success of its previous three Conferences, and as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, the GEF Independent Evaluation Office is gathering distinguished speakers and participants for two and a half days (March 5-7, 2024) of intensive discussions on evaluation in the context of environment and development.

This 4th IEO-EED Conference will focus on how evaluation practice has increasingly integrated the cross-pollination of environmental, socioeconomic, and policy domains. Conference panelists will bring a wealth of knowledge on active efforts to develop evaluation approaches and methods that better reflect the varied and complex relationships of the natural world and the larger systems in which evaluands are measured. Discussions will also contend with the art, science, and epistemological underpinnings of evaluation and the conscious shift toward more inclusive practice and the utilization of local knowledge.

Conference themes will include: evaluation systems, evaluation practice, measuring sustainability, and thematic evaluations on topics such as food security, adaptation and climate resilience, transformational change, and nature-based solutions (NBS). 

A meeting to bring together leaders from medicine, medical tech, telecom, public policy, regulatory, banking, hospital admin and healthcare insurers to tackle the humanitarian possibilities of telesurgery.

This 4th IEO-EED Conference will focus on how evaluation practice has increasingly integrated the cross-pollination of environmental, socioeconomic, and policy domains. For more details, visit here.

Launching the book, Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change at the Asian Institute of Management, Manila. 
Time: 10:30 am to 12:00 noon. For upcoming details, visit here

Vinod Thomas will discuss the interaction between risk and resilience in the era of runway climate change. Three insights emerge:
 – Accounting for the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms, is essential to slowing climate disasters. It is therefore vital to link carbon emissions from fossil fuels to mounting climate disasters.
– Growth economics must factor in the failure of businesses and governments to tackle global warming. This calls for a fundamental revision in the teaching and practice of business and economics.
– Prevention must become a far bigger component of resilience building, with preparedness for more frequent catastrophes built in. Recovery from a disaster is not just about returning to status quo but building back better.

 

Vinod Thomas is a Professor at National University of Singapore, and Distinguished Fellow in Development Management at the Asian Institute of Management, Manila. His current areas of work are climate change, sustainable development, disaster risk management and resilience building. He was Senior Vice President, Independent Evaluation, at the World Bank, and Director General, Independent Evaluation, Asian Development Bank. He is the author of The Quality of Growth (2000), Climate Change and Natural Disasters (2017), and Economic Evaluation of Sustainable Development (with Namrata Chindarkar, 2019), and Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change (2023), among others.

 

He won the 2022 Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Honorary Teaching Award. He holds a PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Chicago and a BA from St. Stephen’s college, Delhi.

Launching the book Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change, the event will highlight the interaction between risk and resilience in the era of runaway climate change.  It will especially focus on Southeast Asia, a region not only at the forefront of climate disasters, but also one that is among    the highest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. It faces the daunting imperative of decarbonizing economic activities and pursue a far more sustainable growth path. 

Broadly speaking, three insights for greater traction on climate policy emerge from the book. 

First, to get public opinion behind actions to slow climate disasters, it is vital to account for the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms. It is therefore crucial to link carbon emissions from fossil fuels to mounting climate disasters.  

Second, there needs to be a transformation in the way growth economics is positioned.  It must factor in the failure of businesses and governments to tackle global warming. This calls for a fundamental revision in the teaching and practice of business and economics. 


Third, prevention must become a far bigger component of resilience building, and there needs to much greater preparedness in Southeast Asia for more frequent catastrophes built in. Recovery from a disaster is not just about returning to status quo but building back better.


The discussion will frame the challenges in the context of the current growth patterns in Southeast Asia.  It will aim to bring out the roadblocks to achieving far reaching changes in the present carbon-intensity of growth and see how they can be dealt with.  It will also consider needed policies and investments in building greater climate resilience in the region, recognizing the other priorities governments struggle with. 


Date: 4 April 2023

Time: 4:00-5:30pm

Location: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS 

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Media

Book Reviews:
Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change

Book Review: A comprehensive overview of the risks and challenges posed by climate change, and the importance of building resilience to these risks. (July 2024)
Book Review: Based on three decades of the author’s work at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and underpinned by extensive academic research, the book is full of practical case studies as well as conceptual frameworks for understanding resilience. (December 2023)
ISEAS, Yusof Ishak Institute | Journal of Southeast Asian Economies - Book Review: What is interesting is that Thomas expands the scope of risks to include those from geopolitical tensions, economic and financial shocks, pandemics and more. He rightly points out that, while these different types of risks compete for attention and scarce resources, "often they have common roots and crisscross each other; their solutions often feature synergies as well". (p. 5). (Volume 40 No. 3, December 2023)
"Resilience must match new highs in risk": As once-in-a-century weather disasters like the 2023 floods in northeast China become frequent occurrences triggered by human-caused climate change, a new book Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) by Vinod Thomas assumes great significance for all. (August 2023)
"Preparedness of Communities to Cope with Disasters - Book Review": This book draws on lessons learned from independent evaluations of thousands of development projects in all regions of the world over the past decades. (June 2023)
"Review of Vinod Thomas's Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change: Notes on Averting a Climate Disaster": The biggest contribution made by the book is to provide a theoretical framework that could help policymakers assess climate risk on the one hand, and adopt or create new resilience metrics to measure the effectiveness of policy actions on the other. (June 2023)
"Preparedness of Communities to Cope with Disasters - Book Review": This book draws on lessons learned from independent evaluations of thousands of development projects in all regions of the world over the past decades. (May 2023)

Contact

Explore possible partnership in research, education or speaking engagements with Vinod Thomas