Uzma Ashraf Barton is a senior public and financial sector specialist with over 20 years of experience in designing, leading, and implementing domestic revenue mobilization and public financial management projects to increase development financing resources. In her current role as a Principal Associate at the Cadmus Group (formerly Nathan Associates), she manages a complex portfolio of projects aimed at strengthening country systems and building capacity to enhance domestic resources through improved governance. Her advisory expertise is drawn from working with institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Her development work is rooted in her practical experience working in senior positions, including her eight years in Pakistan’s Civil Service as an Assistant and Deputy Commissioner where she formulated and implemented complex reforms.
Before joining the Cadmus Group, she advised the World Bank and the Government of Zambia on increasing domestic finances through plugging fiscal gaps. At the World Bank, she identified weaknesses in Indonesia’s regulatory and financial infrastructures, supported the Global Lead on revenue mobilization, and contributed to the development of key international standards such as the fiscal transparency code and financing the post-2015 development agenda. In a report for the Atlantic Council, she mapped Renminbi’s rise and possible impact on the global and regional financial market developments. For an Asian Development Bank’s research-based project on regional integration in Asia), she co-authored a chapter which proposed a legal infrastructure framework for regional market development based on the lessons from the sovereign debt crisis of 2012. In a commissioned study for the Government of China, she advised on the risks of shadow-banking and made recommendations on financial inclusion through sustainable microfinance models.
As practitioner in the public sector, Ms. Barton supported the World Bank-led Tax Administration Reform Project ($149 million) at Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue, and tracked the implementation progress of the IMF’s structural adjustments program. On a Special Assignment, she supported the Prime Minister’s Governance Reform Agenda which sought to enhance fiscal transparency across ten key ministries in Islamabad.
Her publications combine practical learning with theoretical perspectives to formulate actionable research that focuses on financial system stability and resilience, such as ‘PFM systems strength and public investment performance’ (PEFA Secretariat, 2021); ‘International economic order and the Chinese belt and road initiative’ (Routledge, 2019); ‘Rethinking regulation of international finance’ (Kluwer, 2017); and, ‘Regional financial arrangements’ (Edward Elgar, 2014). She also represents Cadmus at industry forums and contributes to various blogs such as the IMF’s PFM blog, the Centre for Global Development’s blog. Ms. Barton has a PhD in International Finance Law, an LLM in Banking and Law, and an MBA in Tax Management.