Karin Christiansen

Karin has been General Secretary of the Co-operative Party since September 2012. As the political arm of the co-operative movement, the party works in partnership with Labour to promote co-operative and mutual forms of organisation, with 32 Labour & Co-operative MPs in Westminster as well as representation in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Karin also represents the Party on Labour’s National Policy Forum.

Karin’s long career in international development includes as the founder and director of Publish What You Fund, the global campaign for aid transparency. Prior to that she was the European Policy Manger with the ONE Campaign and for many years a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute. She joined ODI having worked as an economist at the Rwandan Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture. Prior to that Karin worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Croatia. She has Masters degrees in Development Economics and in Social and Political Thought.

In 2011 Karin was named as one of the Devex London 2011 40 Under 40 International Development Leaders. She is a board member of Maslaha and Publish What You Fund. Karin was also one of the founders the UK think tank transparency website Who Funds You and of LabourValues.