Xavier Leflaive

Background

About Xavier Leflaive

For 25 years, I have been facilitating policy reforms for sustainable development, with a focus on environment and most specifically water. I work with governments, intergovernmental organisations, the private sector and civil society organisations to adapt policies to current and future challenges. Recently, I have been offered the opportunity to facilitate the work of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. With my colleague Anna Dupont, we set up a dedicated, within the OECD Environment Directorate. The Global Commission is due to deliver its report in September 2024. We trust work will continue, to implement some of its messages and legacy in 2025 and beyond. This transition means I now longer lead the Water Team at the OECD Environment Directorate. This has been an extraordinarily exciting and rewarding decade, hiring and working with a team of most inspiring and energising colleagues and partners. These relationships will continue as the work of the Global Commission can inspire the OECD programme of work and vice versa. In parallel, I am a Board member of Eau de Paris. I am grateful for this exposure to practical issues related to the operation of a water utility, such as investment and innovation, pricing and financing, catchment protection and nature-based solutions, relationships with the organising entity, customers, and staff. My ambition and commitment to making reform happen remain unabated. I keep paying particular attention to the political economy of reforms, scoping a practical theory of change. This provides me with the opportunity to build on my other area of interest, namely critical social science. Teaching at Paris School of International Affairs - Sciences Po is another driver to combine my academic background with my professional experience.