John Garrity is Chief of Party for USAID/Philippines’ Better Access and Connectivity (BEACON) activity, a USD 33m USAID program to improve digital connectivity infrastructure, the ICT enabling environment, and cybersecurity capacity in the Philippines. His background is as an economist, policy advisor and project manager with twenty years of experience working on economic development issues in the public sector at the state, federal and international levels, and in the private sector. His focus is on digital inclusion programs, universal access policy and last-mile connectivity deployments to foster effective universal Internet adoption for inclusive growth and poverty alleviation.
Previously, he was an independent consultant to public sector and private sector organizations on digital infrastructure development, including the Asian Development Bank, UNDP Philippines, the UN Broadband Commission, the UN ITU, UNICEF, UNESCAP, among others. He was Senior Connectivity Advisor in the US Global Development Lab at USAID and before that spent ten years at Cisco, in emerging market strategy and global technology policy/government affairs based in Washington, D.C. He began his career at the World Bank and also worked at the US Federal Trade Commission. He serves as a technical advisor to the Network Readiness Index, on the advisory council of the Connect Humanity Fund, has co-authored several reports on technology and development and presented around the world on efforts to close the digital divide.
