Owen abroad

Owen Barder is the Director of aidinfo – a programme of Development Initiatives which aims to make information about aid more easily accessible. He is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Owen is also a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Owen Barder is on unpaid leave from the UK Department for International Development, where he was until May 2008 the Director of International Finance and Development Effectiveness.   Owen’s professional interests is in the economics of developing countries;  economic development and governance in Africa; transparency and accountability; aid effectiveness; the role of knowledge, information and intellectual property rights in economic growth and development; information and communications technology; public financial management in developed and developing countries, aid effectiveness; global health economics; and public-policy making.

From 2004 to 2006, Owen spent two years at the Center for Global Development, a non-profit policy institute whose mission is to make globalisation work for the poor. He was also a Visiting Scholar in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.  Before 2004, held various posts at the Department for International Development, including  Director of Information, Communications and Knowledge and head of Africa Policy Department.  He led a public-private team set up by the Prime Minister to advise on the development of a new partnership for Africa and was team leader for the Imfundo Project.

Before working on international development, Owen was the Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Private Secretary, in 10 Downing Street. In this role, he coordinated Government policy and delivery on microeconomic policy, including trade and industry, the knowledge economy, environment, transport, regional policy, education, employment, science, and modernizing government.  From 1997 to 1999, Owen was seconded for two years to the Treasury of the Government of South Africa, helping to develop the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Budget Reform and the new system of intergovernmental fiscal relations.

From 1988 to 1997, Owen was an official at H M Treasury. His roles included being Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, coordinating the public spending system, forecasting the world economy, forecasting and analysis of domestic labour markets, and medium term macroeconomic policy analysis.

In 1993, Owen set up the UK Government’s first website, for H M Treasury.

Since 2009 Owen has been a member of the Board of Twaweza, which promotes opportunities for citizens in East Africa to hold government authorities to account.  From 2000 to 2004, Owen was a non-executive director of OneWorld, a not-for-profit whose mission is to promote the use of the internet and media for the benefit of the world’s poor.

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