Ian Barney

Ian offers: strong team, programme & project management skills; a willingness to play a leadership role in often challenging circumstances (e.g. helping to turn-round struggling enterprises and projects); leading & facilitating inclusive & successful strategy processes; designing & implementing projects & programmes focused on addressing systemic challenges; securing funds to support organisational objectives; spearheading the creation of innovative business models; the design of grant making initiatives; the development of MEAL systems & providing effective governance & scrutiny.

Clients

CAFOD
Shared Interest
Oxfam GB
Fairtrade Foundation
Reall
Fairtrade International
MICAIA
Shared Interest Foundation
British International Investment
Traidcraft
Divine Chocolate

Qualifications

MSc Social Development Planning and Management
BA Hons Accounting and Finance

Experience

Chair, Alopecia UK (2025- Present)
Alopecia UK is a small but highly impactful charity working to support people with Alopecia, facilitate their advocacy and encourage research into the condition. I am Chair of a fantastic Board of Trustees and work with a small but dynamic staff team. Together we are embarking on a new 3-year strategy that is likely to focus on enhancing the current support model to enable us to offer better support to more people- reaching currently underserved communities.

Independent Chairperson, British International Investment (BII) (formerly CDC) Plus (2016 – Present)
I am one of three DFID appointed Independent Members of the BII Plus Committee. BII Plus represents a major expansion of the role of grant facility to complement the BII investment strategy. My inputs have contributed to the robust analysis of project theories of change and impact logic. I have also successfully encouraged the growth of market shaping initiatives that have the potential for broader strategic and systemic impact aligned with sector investment strategies. Funds currently under BII Plus management are c.£40m.

Independent Chairperson, BII Kinetic (2021 – 2023)
Between 2021 and 2023 I Chaired BII’s Kinetic Investment Committee during its 24 month pilot phase – . £40m blended finance facility with 70% of funds allocated to climate initiatives. My period of Chairing tested the Kinetic hypothesis and resulted in a refined set of principles and modus operandi and a significant scale up (£240m).

Self-Employed Consultant (2012 – Present)
I have completed a number of strategic and impactful assignments including:
• Support to develop a new, green and affordable housing, business unit for REALL (2025)
• Review of Shared Interest Foundation project cycle management policies and procedures (2025)
• Evaluation for CAFOD of humanitarian response to the Rohingya crisis (2023-24)
• Critical facilitative role in reviewing the strategic positioning of a Rainforest Alliance business unit (2022)
• Thoughtful support to Shared Interest strategic planning process. Collection and analysis of key stakeholder ‘insights’ to feed into strategic review (2022)
• Effective coordination and leadership of 4-person team to review multi-country, multi-stakeholder evaluation of Comic Relief/FCDO’s £20m ‘Trade, Enterprise and Employment’ grant programme (2021).
• Evaluation (for OXFAM GB/Unilever) of community development component of a carbon credit scheme in Kalimantan. The work, assessing relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of coconut sugar initiative in 7 villages bordering a large forest concession (supported by carbon credits), has directly influenced future engagement with local communities (2020).
• Support to a key stage in CAFOD’s strategic planning process to assess how current work areas were aligned with new strategic priorities and how they could become more aligned in future. The work involved development of a tool to encourage self-reflection and a series of interviews and focus groups to consider emerging issues and ideas. The work helped to re-shape CAFOD’s international programme (2020).
• Innovative living Income study using participatory techniques (Malawian tea and Kenya coffee producers) to compare current income with living income benchmarks that was used to actively engage with the Kenyan government review of the coffee sector (Fairtrade Foundation 2018).
• Imaginative input into the design of the Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade International’s strategy to encourage innovative business practices that enhance impact (2017).
• Pioneered the development of a ‘Sustainable Communities’ strategy for Acacia Mining PLC that transformed the way in which the company engaged with local communities (2015-18).
• Invaluable shepherding of the design process for CDC Technical Assistance Fund to support its Impact Investment programme (2016).
• Spearheaded the development of Enterprise Development ‘guides’ for both CAFOD (based on participatory market mapping process in 3 countries) and CARE International that have helped to accelerate the adoption of a more enterprise based approach in both these organisations (2013-14). In 2020 I overhauled the CAFOD guide based on 5-years of user feedback.
• Using review of secondary data, interview and focus group (UK and Mozambique) to scope a series of options that could help to strengthen the position of smallholders in the fast-changing Mozambican agricultural landscape and recommend next steps (Eco-Micaia, 2013)
• Strategic, inclusive and sensitive support to Shared Interest senior management team to develop a 5-year strategic plan that helped Shared Interest to deepen and broaden its impact (2014)
• Influential research into private sector development that identified key lessons to maximise strong and long-term poverty impact and shaped DFID programming in this area. Presented findings to All Party Parliamentary Committee (APPC) on Development Aid and Trade at the House of Commons (2013)

Independent Investment Committee Member, DFID Impact Acceleration Facility, CDC (2015-18)
I was an external (appointed by the CDC Board) member of the 5-strong Investment Committee (IC) of CDC’s IP2 funds (that incorporates the Impact Accelerator Fund). I participated actively in an Investment Committee that reviewed ‘impactful’ investment opportunities in Africa and South Asia – helping to refine the investment strategy and to ensure greater consideration of developmental impact (many of the processes we encourage have now been adopted more widely across the portfolio). I have played an important role in encouraging the development of sector strategies to help cohesion and consistency of funding decisions.

Private Sector Advisor, Oxfam GB (2018-19, 12-month, PT contract)
I contributed to Oxfam GB’s private sector programming work, for example, the management of an innovation project to promote women’s economic empowerment in 3 value chains in Ghana using a ‘social labs’ approach; a project in partnership with Unilever to strengthen their contribution to developmental objectives in their supply chains, e.g. migrant workers in tomato value chains in Turkey; work with large multinational companies to conceptualise, embed and operationalise social development commitments.

Managing Director, Twin and Twin Trading (2004-12)
Twin was a leading UK-based social enterprise, consisting of a charity and a wholly owned trading company. Twin worked with smallholders in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia to help them organise, strengthen their businesses, and capture more value from their endeavours. To this end, Twin established consumer facing brands, such as Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate, Liberation, which were part owned by producers. As MD, I led a team of 25 employees, including a senior management team of 4, managed the key relationships with the Board of Trustees and sat on the Boards of Divine and Liberation.

Project Manager, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), University of Wales Swansea (1995-2004)
CDS was one of the first and most respected centres for international development in the country- offering undergraduate and postgraduate and professional development courses, and project management and consultancy services. My achievements include:
• Leading a strategic planning process and the development of a work point scheme designed to give staff consistent credit for their teaching, research and consultancy activities;
• Effective management of and participation in a large portfolio of projects in, for example: East/West India Rainfed Farming Projects, India (DFID); Social Development Capacity Building Project, Jordan (DFID); Artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia; Kenyan National Poverty Eradication Plan (DFID/WBG).
• Cutting edge research into the business poverty interface. This included (in partnership with ActionAid Orissa) research to illuminate relationship between business activity and groups of vulnerable people in Orissa and the ‘social assessment’ of the closure of BP Llandarcy oil refinery in South Wales;