David Painter is an independent advisor with over 35 years of experience on the financing of urban development. He provides advice on policy, strategy and investment operations to organizations such as the World Bank, the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC), Evensen Dodge International (a public finance advisory firm), the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), the Cities Alliance, the International City Management Association (ICMA), USAID, and others. David focuses on policy reform for promoting long-term financing of urban infrastructure as well as strategies for mobilizing long term capital in developing countries. Among his recent assignments he has been:
- Senior advisor to the World Bank “City Creditworthiness Initiative”, including delivery of City Creditworthiness Academies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Korea, India, Indonesia, Tanzania and Turkey, and advisor to the World Bank’s Water Global Practice on adapting the Creditworthiness Initiative to serve water utilities;
- Senior advisor on “Financial Sustainability” for development of the GPSC Urban Sustainability Framework;
- Author of the chapters on “Urban Infrastructure Financing” and “Institutionalizing Improved Urban Management” in the USAID/India Developing Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Infrastructure: A Guidebook for Project Implementers and Policy Makers;
- Principal advisor on the reform of urban infrastructure financing for the China Urbanization Study prepared by the World Bank and China’s Development Research Center in 2013;
- Author of “Financing Sub-Sovereign Infrastructure Through The Turkish Debt Market: A Diagnostic Review” for Evensen Dodge International, Inc.; and
- Developer of a Municipal Finance Diagnostic Tool for the Sub-National Technical Assistance Program of PPIAF.
David is a former member of the Senior Foreign Service of the United States and Director of the USAID Office of Housing and Urban Programs, where he implemented the agency’s urban strategy, “Making Cities Work”, and helped create the USAID Development Credit Authority partial credit guarantee mechanism (DCA). He was directly involved in efforts to reduce the impact of poverty in developing cities, and responsible for the design, development and implementation of complex loan guarantee programs that mobilized over $800 million dollars from private investors for housing and basic urban infrastructure. Among his overseas assignments, David directed the operations of two USAID Regional Housing & Urban Development Offices; one based in Asia (Bangkok), and the other in the Near East/North Africa (Tunis). As the senior USAID officer in those offices, he was responsible for negotiations with top level country officials on development policies and the use of USAID resources to leverage local investment. David’s leadership of the two regional offices was recognized with USAID’s Superior Honor Award for “his extraordinary and sustained creativity in promoting reforms in urban policy across Asia and the Near East”.
David earned an M.P.A. in Economic Development Studies from Princeton University, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Development (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Colgate University.