Andrew Nickson is an Honorary Reader in Public Management at the International Development Department (IDD) at the University of Birmingham, where he directed the Masters programme in Governance and Development. He is currently engaged in research, consultancy and writing on international development, with special emphasis on national and local governance issues.
He has extensive worldwide experience of teaching, research and consultancy on public administration reform, decentralisation, and the regulation of privatised public utilities. His most recent research has focussed on decentralisation and conflict prevention, the management of urban water supply, and the relationship between language, governance and citizen participation. He is a regular writer for several subscription-only publications, including the Economist Intelligence Unit, Oxford Analytica and IHS Markit. He also writes an annual Politico-Social Short Analysis (PSA) for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Since 2011 he has been external trainer for the Peace and Security Division of the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) in Turin, Italy, for which he teaches face-to-face courses on the role of decentralisation and local governance in the peacebuilding process of post-conflict countries (Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Yemen, Bangla Desh, Ethiopia) as well as at UN HQ in New York. In 2013/14 Andrew wrote a distance learning (DL) version of the course for the UNSSC and to date has taught 14 editions (most recently in April 2021). In 2020 he wrote and pioneered a new course at UNSSC entitled ‘Macroeconomics for Peace’.