Andrew Barnett is an economist with over 40 years of experience of development, with a specific expertise in energy policy. Since 2004 has been a Director of the British-based consulting firm The Policy Practice Limited. The Policy Practice focuses particularly on political economy analysis and issues of governance in developing countries.

He has a had a life-long specialism in the area of energy and development with a particular focus in recent years the political economy of power sector reform, the international trade in electricity in Africa, and the political economy of ‘energy access’.

He has experience of international development assistance as a government economist, commercial consultant, research manager, and policy researcher. In addition to consultancy he has undertaken and managed research at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), the Institute of Development Studies at the Sussex University, and IDRC of Canada. In the late 1990’s he was the Director of Research and Policy at the Intermediate Technology Development Group (now Practical Action) Rugby.

He has been a specialist advisor to both the UK House of Lords and the House of Common Select Committees on Science and Technology. For over ten years until 2007 he was a member and then Moderator of the independent Technical Advisory Group which advises the World Bank and the Consultative Group of bilateral donors on their trust-funded energy programmes (including ESMAP).

He is a member of the Advisory Board of the World Development journal and is an Honorary Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex University, UK. He has been a member of the Boards of the Overseas Development Institute, HEDON the household energy network, and Womankind Worldwide, London.