About

Owen Barder is Senior Fellow and Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development which is based in Washington DC. He is also an Associate of the British Institute for Government.

Owen was previously a British civil servant in a career spanning more than 20 years. He worked in H M Treasury, the office of the Prime Minister, and the UK Department for International Development. He has been the private secretary to the Prime Minister and to two Chancellors of the Exchequer. He also took breaks from the civil service to work in the South African Treasury, the Center for Global Development and to be a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. He has been on the board of several NGOs. Owen was also the Director of aidinfo – a programme of Development Initiatives which aims to make aid more transparent and accountable.

Owen blogs about development and presents Development Drums, a podcast on development issues. He is on Twitter as owenbarder.

Google profile.

Recent Comments

It’s the politics, stupid
- John:
  I’m surprised you didn’t also mention the Development Drums podcast you did a few years ago with Daniel...
  June 18, 2013
- Søren:
  I like the sentiment of your post, Owen, but I’m a bit surprised of how much attention Acemoglu and Robinson...
  June 5, 2013
- David Jacobstein:
  Owen, you note that “Either the governing elite supports change, in which case donors bring nothing...
  June 4, 2013
- Daniel Thornton:
  Good review, important issues. Only thing is that if you say it’s all about the politics, people get...
  June 3, 2013
What sort of conditions should there be on aid?
- Leah Briones:
  Owen, thanks for this excellent piece. The issues you discuss has been my experience having once worked as a...
  June 17, 2013
Dogfood and disruption
- mikel:
  good post Owen, but one correction. turns out it was possibly microsoft that first ate its own dog food as policy....
  June 16, 2013
- Bill Savedoff:
  Great post, Owen. DFID’s advance shows just how backwards is US foreign assistance reporting practice....
  June 13, 2013
- Loren Treisman:
  Thanks for the summary Owen. It’s really exciting to see that Open Data is now being used to enable...
  June 13, 2013
- Rebeca:
  Dear Owen, What a great article! Many thanks for mentioning us! We are though a joint venture with Crown Agents, and...
  June 13, 2013
Mobile phones in Ethiopia
- Natnael Gashu:
  As of November 2012 (and confirmed again in February 2013) it seems Vodafone pay as you talk SIM cards DO work.
  June 9, 2013
- Natnael Gashu:
  I have been trying to find the published rates for per-paid minutes from Ethio Telcom. Does anyone have the...
  June 9, 2013
Cycling in Ethiopia
- Rick:
  Brilliant. Thanks Scotty. Will have to up my game before I take on that ride!
  May 27, 2013