Tony Burdon

Tony Burdon has worked in international development for most of his life, spending over fifteen years living and working in Africa and Asia.
His first job was as a VSO volunteer water engineer working for the Government of Malawi. He worked for ten years in Oxfam, first as a humanitarian engineer, working in war and drought affected countries, then leading Oxfam’s work in Uganda and the humanitarian response to the Rwandan genocide, and finally as a policy advisor working on international financial institutions and debt relief, including representing Oxfam on the Board of Jubilee 2000, the successful debt relief campaign.
He then joined the UK civil service, working first in Treasury’s International Poverty Reduction Team, and in the Commission for Africa, before moving to the Department for International Development. He led DFID’s economic work in Nepal and Nigeria, and then as a senior civil servant led the Economic Growth, Private Sector and International Financial Institutions Departments. A considerable part of that time was concentrated on the mobilisation of private sector investment into developing countries, with a focus on impact, tackling the climate emergency, and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.