Andy West has worked on issues of rights and with children and young people for over 20 years in UK and Asia. His main practice has concerned participation, roles, status and empowerment of children and young people, mainly around issues of abuse, exploitation, homelessness, poverty, law and justice, and HIV/AIDS, and with a focus on diversity and discrimination. Local cultures and perceptions of children, childhood, young people and youth have been an underpinning interest throughout work, which has included research and teaching as well as practice.

In the UK Andy worked as a youth counsellor, rights adviser, community worker and activist, researcher and for some five years as a university lecturer. For the past 10 years he has been working in Asia, mostly across China, where he lived for eight years, in Mongolia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.