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ABOUT THE EVENT
An event organized jointly by Coalitions for Reforms, The Asia Foundation, and the World Bank’s South Asian Region Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions. The event is being supported by the World Bank’s Governance & Institutions Umbrella Program.
Success of World Bank operations often depend on how well they can engage and mobilize stakeholders to support reforms, policies, and the effective implementation of projects. For years, coalition building has been the centerpiece of some of The Asia Foundation’s most successful development initiatives and the achievement of milestone policy reforms. In 2023, the Foundation sought to elevate interest and debate on this experience through its publication On the Right Track: Reflections on Coalition-Building Initiatives Across the Asia Foundation, which examined examples from Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. The paper sheds light on the coalition-building modality, sharing insights on how coalitions emerge and function and how the approach can be adapted for application in other contexts.
The event is organized jointly by Coalitions for Reforms, The Asia Foundation, and the World Bank’s South Asian Region Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions. The event is being supported by the World Bank’s Governance & Institutions Umbrella Program.
ABOUT THE ASIA FOUNDATION
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives and expanding opportunities across Asia and the Pacific. Informed by 70 years of experience and deep local knowledge, our work is focused on governance, climate action, gender equality, education and leadership, inclusive growth, and international cooperation.
Learn more at: https://asiafoundation.org/
ABOUT THE G&I
The World Bank’s Governance & Institutions Umbrella Program (G&I) is a multi-donor trust fund established in 2022 with the generous support of the Chandler Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. G&I is also funded by the European Union, Government of Estonia, and the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Learn more at: www.worldbank.org/giup
CHAIR
MATHEW VERGHIS, South Asia Regional Director, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institution, World Bank
MODERATOR
MATHIEU CLOUTIER, Coalitions for Reforms Program Manager and Senior Economist, World Bank
PRESENTERS
DR. NICOLA NIXON, Senior Regional Director, Governance
MS. SUMAYA SALUJA, Program Manager, Governance
JAIME FAUSTINO, Strategic Advisor, Coalitions for Change, Philippines
DISCUSSANT
PUTERI NATALIE WATSON, Senior Operations Officer, South Asia, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, World Bank
SPEAKER BIOS
Mathew Verghis, South Asia Regional Director, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, World Bank
Mathew Verghis is the South Asia Regional Director for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions at the World Bank. His previous assignments have been as Practice Manager for Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment in East and Southern Africa and as Practice Manager in East Asia covering China, Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Earlier he had served as Lead Economist for Southeast Asia, Senior Economist for Turkey and Serbia, and country economist for Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has written widely on growth, poverty, fiscal policy and labor markets. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D in Economics from the University of Notre Dame, in the United States.
Dr. Nicola Nixon, Senior Regional Director, Governance
Dr Nicola Nixon is The Asia Foundation’s Senior Regional Director, Governance. With over 20 years’ experience in international development and academia, Nicola leads the Foundation’s governance programs across the 18 countries and three sub-regions of Asia in which it works. Nicola brings to the Foundation a depth of expertise in governance and the governance dimensions of poverty reduction, social development, and gender and inclusion from her roles in UNDP, Australian DFAT, and a range of INGOs, multilateral and bilateral agencies in diverse environments and across multiple contexts, including the UK, Australia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Ms. Sumaya Saluja, Program Manager, Governance
Ms. Sumaya Saluja is the Program Manager for Regional Governance at The Asia Foundation. She has over ten years of experience working on governance, education, and health reform in Asia-Pacific, and specializes in applied political economy analysis. In her current position, she leads and advises on research and policy reform initiatives related to climate action, strengthening civic spaces, and promoting economic growth. From 2017 to 2021, she was based in Myanmar, working on decentralization reform, and strengthening social accountability. Prior to joining TAF, Sumaya has collaborated on various projects in partnership with the Ministry of Health in India, the University of Massachusetts, UNESCO, UNICEF, the United Nation’s Girls Education Initiative, and the Asian Development Bank.
Jaime Faustino, Strategic Advisor, Coalitions for Change, Philippines
Jaime has been working for three decades with international development partners and Philippine leaders and organizations to introduce reforms in diverse areas such as civil aviation, property rights, education, disaster risk reduction and management, electoral reform, renewable energy among others. From those reform experiences and development thinking, Jaime conceptualized development entrepreneurship, an operational model to assist development agencies and practitioners integrate the technical and political dimensions of reform. Among his publications are co-editor with Raul Fabella, Built on Dreams, Grounded in Reality: Economic Policy Reform in the Philippines (2011); co-writer with David Booth, “Development Entrepreneurship: How Donors and Leaders can Foster Institutional Change” (2014); co-writer with John Sidel, Thinking and Working Politically in Practice: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines (2020). Jaime received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at Duke University and a master’s degree in political science at University of the Philippines in 1992.