Hugh Riddell is the World Bank Country Manager for the Kyrgyz Republic.
Mr. Riddell joined the World Bank in 2007 and has held various positions in Washington, D.C., Afghanistan, East and Southern Africa.
Most recently, between 2020 and 2024, Riddell was the Bank’s Country Manager for Malawi and led the preparation and delivery of the new Country Partnership Framework under which IDA’s financing has doubled for the country. During this time, Riddell spearheaded a comprehensive response to Malawi's severe poly-crisis, addressing acute shortages of essential supplies by mobilizing nearly $300 million through the Crisis Response Window and leading a portfolio restructuring to expedite portfolio disbursements.
Prior to his role in Malawi, Riddell served as Country Representative and Country Manager in Somalia and led the re-establishment of the World Bank’s relations with Somalia and its federal government. Riddell helped coordinate an international process to support debt relief through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). Somalia reached the HIPC Decision Point in early 2020, unlocking new resources from international financial institutions.
Earlier in his Bank career, Riddell focused on infrastructure financing in emerging markets, building on his prior experience in investment banking for Citigroup, and then moved to Kabul until 2012 where he managed the Bank’s largest single-country multi-donor trust fund, the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, mobilizing significant financing from around 30 donors for reconstruction.
Riddell, a UK national, holds a BA from Oxford University and a MA from Johns Hopkins.
