Nicole Barnes

Nicole Barnes has worked in international development for over two decades, including 11 years spent working overseas. In leading the International Development Group’s Sustainable Growth & Resilience Unit, she harnesses cross-sector connections to design and deliver integrated solutions that respond to environmental stresses, build resilience, and promote economic growth in low- and middle-income countries. This drives solutions across RTI’s work in food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity.

Her technical experience is rooted in numerous elements of public finance. In multiple countries, Ms. Barnes has worked on education finance, implementing local governance support programs, urban service delivery, fiscal decentralization, own-source financing for local government, intergovernmental grants, and local economic development.

Ms. Barnes’ overseas experience includes technical project work in India, Indonesia, Montenegro, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda. Ms. Barnes has also worked extensively in India, Indonesia, Jordan, the Philippines, and South Africa on RTI’s strategic positioning and business development. She has held both long- and short-term assignments for the US Agency for International Development and its contractors, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. She has extensive experience in working with host country counterparts.

Within RTI, Ms. Barnes has served in several key strategic advisory and partnership roles. She excels as a leader and manager, leveraging skills such as strategic positioning and planning, client and partner engagement and relationship building, project design and implementation, proposal leadership, contractor monitoring, and team building and staff management.