Nicholas Burnett will lead Results for Development's new Education portfolio. A global leader on improving education outcomes for the world’s poor, he will step down at the end of October as UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education.

“Dr. Burnett has an outstanding record of experience and credentials on global education,” said David De Ferranti, President of R4D. “In his new role at Results for Development, he will build and lead initiatives on meeting education challenges in developing countries, and will be one of the principals managing all of our work and people.”

As an R4D Principal and Managing Director, Burnett will lead a team that will work to improve education policy making in developing countries by building governments’ capacity, promoting independent policy institutes and civil society organizations, and advising both donors and other sources of external funding. (More details are available here.)

“Our knowledge-based societies mean that education has never been more important than today, for achieving economic growth, reducing poverty and giving everyone an equal chance in life. Yet there is still too little use of evidence in education policymaking and there are too few independent voices, especially in developing countries. I believe that R4D can help improve this,” said Nicholas Burnett. “Its work in health shows what can be done by a small nimble institute, and my goal is to do the same for education.”

Burnett will be supported by additional experts including Alan Ruby, currently Program Director in International Education Development at the University of Pennsylvania. “R4D is committed to putting the best ideas about strengthening human capital development into action as quickly and efficiently as possible.” said Ruby. Also part of R4D’s Education team will be Birger Fredriksen, who recently retired as the World Bank's Senior Advisor for Education in Africa. “I am joining R4D because of the role it can play in facilitating international learning and consultative processes to enhance the effectiveness of external aid in developing and implementing evidenced-based education policies to help poor countries benefit more from the increasingly important role knowledge plays in determining economic growth,” said Fredriksen. Other appointments will be made in the coming months.

For additional information please email: education@resultsfordevelopment.org