Professor Finn Tarp is the Director of the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and also Professor of Development Economics at the University of Copenhagen. He has some 38 years of experience in academic and applied development economics research and teaching. His field experience covers more than 20 years of in-country work in 35 countries across Africa and the developing world more generally, including longer-term assignments in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Vietnam. 

On 20 November 2015 Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark awarded Finn Tarp with the Order of the Dannebrog.