Zoubida Allaoua is the World Bank Regional Director of Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions for the South Asia Region, where she manages teams working on macroeconomics, private and financial sector development, governance – including public procurement and financial management, and poverty reduction.
Before this latest assignment, Zoubida served as the Director for Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation for South and East Asia; Director for Urban and Disaster Risk Management Department; Strategy and Operations Director for the Sustainable Development Network; and Senior Regional Advisor to the East Asia and Pacific Region Vice Presidency. During that time, she advised the Vice President on complex and high-risk projects in transport, hydropower, energy, water, and urban. She was also in charge of the World Bank East Asia framework to support countries for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on emissions reductions. In that capacity, she represented the World Bank on the Green Climate Fund, focusing on policies to help countries mobilize funding to invest in resilience to climate and natural disasters.
In 2013, Zoubida was appointed Acting Vice President for the Sustainable Development Network, a position she combined with her other functions as Director of Strategy and Operations and Director of Finance, Economics and Urban Development. During that time she led the World Bank’s largest network with an active portfolio of US$134 billion, accounting for 69 percent of total World Bank’s portfolio; managing a major dialogue on spatial development, growth and poverty reduction. She also managed relations and partnerships with the United Nations, the European Commission, and numerous institutions, bilateral donors, and civil society organizations involved in sustainable development and climate change.
Zoubida started her career as a Young Professional covering West Africa, before graduating into a country economist on Central African Republic, then India and Pakistan. She managed the World Bank’s premier recruitment program the Young Professionals from 1992-1994. In 2002, she was appointed Sector Manager for Private and Financial Sector Development for the Middle East and North Africa Region, where she led major lending operations on banking reforms and housing finance and major analytical work, including the Flagship report on Private Sector Development in MNA: From Privilege to Competition.