Noam Unger

Noam Unger is Vice President for Development Policy, Advocacy, and Learning at InterAction. In this role, he leads efforts to strengthen the voice and role of civil society in global development, international relief, and associated policy deliberations. Noam oversees the InterAction coalition’s work to enhance NGO impact through networked learning; align common interests; and influence U.S. and international policies and practices.

Prior to joining InterAction in 2018, Noam served as the Acting Chief Strategy Officer at USAID. Noam also previously served as the Director of USAID’s Office of Policy, and as an Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning. His early career additionally included service at the State Department and USAID in roles focused on international conflict and humanitarian assistance.

In the non-profit sector, Noam served as a Vice President for Global Citizen Year, an education-related social enterprise committed to building the next generation of leaders. From 2007 to 2012, he worked at Brookings as a Global Economy and Development Fellow, where he directed the Foreign Aid Reform Project, co-founded the Development Assistance and Governance Initiative, and managed the annual Brookings Blum Roundtable.

Noam was also a founding member and principal of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), and his background includes consulting work with Save the Children in Haiti and with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

At the start of his career, he spent a year on a solo, around-the-world project in Central America, South America, West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia as a fellow of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and he then worked in the private sector as an analyst and inventor for a software company.