Harun Onder

Areas of Expertise

• International Economics
• International Development
• Economics of Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacement

Professional Summary

Harun Onder, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Howard G. Buffett Endowed Chair on Conflict and Development in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University, where he also leads the Program on Conflict and Development. His research focuses on key development policy challenges, including the economic consequences of demographic changes, natural resource shocks, and conflicts, including forced displacement.

Before joining Texas A&M University, Dr. Onder served as the Deputy Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region at the World Bank, where he spent more than 15 years conducting research and policy dialogue across the MENA, Europe and Central Asia, and East Africa regions. During his tenure, he led three World Bank budget-support operations in Tanzania and Angola, facilitating critical reforms such as the adoption of digital innovations for agricultural resilience, universal health insurance, and private sector participation in electricity transmission, and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies.

Dr. Onder has led large analytical programs on conflict-driven policy challenges, including the World Bank’s Analytical Roadmap for the conflict in Syria. This program informed international efforts to mitigate the economic fallout of the war in the Mashreq Region. Additionally, he led the Bank’s technical assistance to the Government of Ukraine in designing a post-conflict recovery strategy for Eastern Ukraine.