Just Faaland is a Norwegian political economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

. He started as an economist with OEEC in 1949. Later he worked for a number of international institutions including the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, ILO

Ilo

Ilo is a port city in southern Peru, with some 58,000 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the Moquegua Region and capital of the province of Ilo.-History:...

, IFAD, FAO

Fão

Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....

, WFP, UNDP, and the Asian Development Bank

Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...

. Faaland has been based as a development researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute

Chr. Michelsen Institute

The Chr. Michelsen Institute was founded in 1930, and is currently the largest centre for development research in Scandinavia. CMI is an independent, non-profit research foundation for policy-oriented and applied development research. Headed by the director Ottar Mæstad, it employs 40 social...

 (CMI) since 1952. With the political scientist Stein Rokkan

Stein Rokkan

Stein Rokkan was a Norwegian political scientist and sociologist. He was a professor in comparative politics at the University of Bergen.-Career and influence:...

 he initiated and developed broader research programmes and employed more people in the 1950s and in 1961 they defined research programmes in international economics and comparative politics. In 1965, the Development Action and Research Programme (DERAP), a development economics project on growth problems in developing countries was formally established. In the early 1980s, Faaland established a Human Rights Programme which soon grew to become the other main focus of CMI's social science research.

Faaland is one of the individuals responsible for the formulation of the Malaysian New Economic Policy

Malaysian New Economic Policy

The Malaysian New Economic Policy , was an ambitious and controversial socio-economic restructuring affirmative action program launched by the Malaysian government in 1971 under the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. The NEP ended in 1990, and was succeeded by the National Development Policy in...

. He has also been the director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute

International Food Policy Research Institute

The International Food Policy Research Institute is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology...

. and chairman of the UN Committee for Development Planning (1999-2000). Faaland formally retired in 1988.

Faaland is a Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, was awarded the Malaysian honorary title Tan Sri and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen

University of Bergen

The University of Bergen is located in Bergen, Norway. Although founded as late as 1946, academic activity had taken place at Bergen Museum as far back as 1825. The university today serves more than 14,500 students...

 and University of Malaya

University of Malaya

The University of Malaya is located on a campus near the centre of Kuala Lumpur, and is the oldest university in Malaysia. It was founded in 1905 as a public-funded tertiary institution...

.