Mark Borg was born in Malta in June 1966.

He studied Education and in 1990 conferred the Degree of Bachelor of Education (Hons) (major in Biology) at the University of Malta. He taught Biology for two years and then left teaching to pursue studies in environment education at Ahmedabad, India. On his return to Malta worked as a freelance journalist until 1995. In 1995 he conferred the post-graduate diploma in Political Studies at the University of Malta. Since 1989 he has been active in the Green Movement and is a founding member of the Maltese Green Party. He served as the Party’s Environment Spokesperson for many years. He was also publisher of the party’s weekly newspaper which exposed a number of corruption scandals through its investigative journalism, and saw him in court on many occasions because of it. He contested two elections for the party. In 1994 he served as an Electoral Support Officer on the United Nations Observation Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA) leading to and following their first democratic elections in April of that year. Subsequently, he worked as a project management consultant for the Social Welfare Development Programme, a Maltese government agency responsible for the design and management of social development projects.

In August 1995 was assigned to Fiji as an Information and Development Communications Specialist on UNDP’s Pacific Regional Equitable and Sustainable Human Development Programme. In August 1996 joined the UNDP Suva Field Office as Information Support Officer for the Resident Coordinator and later Assistant to the UN Resident Coordinator. He later joined the UNDP Sub-Regional Resource Facility (SURF) on its establishment in the Pacific as Deputy Coordinator/Webmaster until March 2001. In June 2001 Mark joined the Fiji Elections Assistance Project as Information Management Consultant.

Together with two other development practitioners, in 2002 formed DevOptions, a development consulting company. He has consulted for a number of governments and organizations. Presently he is also serving as the International Consultant for the National Preparatory Committee of the Fifth International Conference for New or Restored Democracies (ICNRD 5) which will take place at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in September 2003.

During his eight years in the Pacific Mark has worked in a number of countries in the region including Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Tuvalu and Fiji.

In 2002 Mark went back to school and conferred the post-graduate diploma in Governance at the University of the South Pacific. Presently also pursuing a Masters in History/Politics at the University of the South Pacific, studying elections in Fiji.

Web: www.devoptions.com