Lucie Phillips

During a career in international development that spans some 30 years, Dr. Phillips has contributed innovative methodologies, produced consistently solid results, and authored numerous scholarly publications. Dr. Phillips' early work reflected innovative foresight, contributing to what later became major trends. In the 1970s, when the development community had not yet recognized that the problems it was facing were structural, she pointed it out on project after project. In the 1980s, when investment promotion focused exclusively on foreign investment, she initiated one of the first Doing Business studies, that examined factors affecting local as well as international investors. When poverty studies were still in their infancy, she developed indicators such as the low-income household consumer price index (CPI) basket, that could be tracked through prices instead of repeated surveys. In the 1990s, when business persons' networks brought in only token women-owned firms, she helped West African businesswomen organize a network of their own.