Laurence Phillips is a Senior Humanitarian and Policy Officer at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). His current work focuses on post-pandemic development within the Mekong subregion.

Previously, he spent five years managing Australia’s humanitarian response to Iraq and Yemen, during which he was posted to the Australian Embassy in Baghdad in 2018.

Laurie has worked in Afghanistan, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Thailand, and China, managing humanitarian response and development projects both with the DFAT, the United Nations and humanitarian NGOs.

Laurie is a specialist in humanitarian response, post-conflict recovery, international development, anti-human trafficking, and anti-child labour. He has a particular interest in climate change and its impacts on development and post-conflict recovery.

Laurie has a Master of International Affairs specialising in peace and conflict studies and a Graduate Certificate of Climate Policy from The Australian National University, and a Graduate Certificate in Humanitarian Response from Monash University.