Mr Burnett will lead a team working to improve education policy making in developing countries by building governments' capacity, promoting civil society organizations and advising both donors and other sources of external funding.  

During his tenure at UNESCO, Mr. Burnett has been recognized for increasing the visibility of the agency's profile in education, bringing in new expertise, making teachers, skills, literacy and planning the key priorities of the next biennium (2010-2011) and securing a budgetary increase for this upcoming period. Previous to becoming Assistant Director-General, Mr Burnett directed UNESCO’s flagship Education for All Global Monitoring Report.