Public Administration Global Forum: Transforming Governments for a Livable Planet

Abraham Makur Mangok Abol is the Director General of Human Resource Management, Ministry of Labor, Public Service, and Human Resource Development in South Sudan.

DG Makur started his career working on sub-national humanitarian response efforts and as Director for Resolutions of the State Council of the Lakes State, prior to joining the national government’s Ministry of Public Service in 2010. A seasoned civil servant, DG Makur has been at the forefront of establishing South Sudan’s civil service, leading on recruitment, individual and institutional performance management, and organizational diagnostics.

Junaid Kamal Ahmad is Vice President of Operations at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the Political Risk Insurance and Credit Enhancement arm of the World Bank Group (WBG). He is responsible for advancing and enhancing MIGA’s brand partnering across WBG and with financial institutions, private investors, and development actors to originate and pursue meaningful, impact-driven projects. Mr. Ahmad also leads the Operations team of the Agency to deliver on MIGA’s mandate of mobilizing private finance for development projects in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs)  

Junaid, a Bangladeshi national, was formerly the Chief of Staff to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. He joined the World Bank in 1991 as a Young Professional and worked on infrastructure development in Africa and Eastern Europe. He has since held several management positions, leading the Bank’s program in diverse regions including Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in India and South Asia.  

He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Brown University.

Rumana Ali, a Bangladeshi academic, writer, and politician from Gazipur, is currently serving as the State Minister for Primary and Mass Education and representing Gazipur-3 in the 12th Parliament, Bangladesh. Rumana is deeply involved in shaping educational policies and legislative initiatives.

In addition to her political roles, Rumana is a member of the Dhaka Bar Association, reflecting her engagement in legal matters. She also holds chairmanship positions at Abdul Awal Degree College and Bormi Degree College, contributing significantly to the educational sector in Gazipur.

Furthermore, Rumana demonstrates her commitment to humanitarian causes through her leadership as the Chairman of the Human and Children Rights Development Society, advocating for the rights and welfare of vulnerable populations.

P.A.S. Athula Kumara is an old boy of Bandaranayaka College, Gampaha and he is a Bsc Management (Public Admin.) (Special) degree holder from the University of Sri Jayawardhanapura. He obtained his Masters degree in Business Studies in the University of Colombo. Athula Kumara is a Class I Officer of Sri Lanka Accountants Service. And also he is a member of Chartered Public Accountant in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Member of Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy, London. 

Having joined the Public Service in 1991 as an Audit Examiner in Auditor General’s Department, he entered the Sri Lanka Accountants Service in 1992 and served as the Accountant in Lankapura Divisional Secretariat of Polonnaruwa District and in Thalawa Divisional Secretariat of Anuradhapura from 1992 – 1997. During the period of 1997 – 2005, served as an Accountant in Director’s Office of Agriculture in the North Central Province and worked 2 years in the Ministry of Mahaweli, Irrigation, Rajarata Development and Agriculture in Battaramulla. 

P.A.S.Athula Kumara joined the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Finance in 2007 and held several positions in the Department. Currently he is working as the Director General in Department of Public Enterprises. 

He has gained foreign trainings and exposures in related to Accounting Financial Management, Strategic plan & Risk Management from reputed international Institutions/Universities. 

He has also been a Director/Board Member of several Statutory Institutions including Colombo Commercial Fertilizer, Mantai Salt Ltd., Building Material Corporation, Ceylon Agro Industries Ltd., Lanka Hydrolic Ltd., Ceylon Ceramics Corporation. And also he served as a member of several Expert Committees of Sri Lanka Transport Board, National water Supply & Drainage Board, Road Development Authority. In addition, Athula Kumara worked as the Chief Executive Officer in the Local Development Fund from 2012-2014.

Pedro Arizti is a Senior Public Sector Specialist in the Governance Practice at the World Bank. Since joining in 2003, he has worked across several regions covering the EU Member States based in Zagreb, South Asia based in New Delhi and Latin America based in Bogota. He has led multiple operations and published on areas related to institutional performance, budget management, monitoring and evaluation and fiscal and administrative decentralization. Before joining the World Bank, Pedro worked in the private sector for several years focusing on budget and financial management.

Pedro studied economics at the Universidad Comercial de Deusto, has a post graduate degree in development from the University of the Basque Country and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University.  

Jody Barnett is the Global Lead of Mastercard's Public Sector Centre of Excellence. In this role, she oversees a global segments practice that unifies knowledge, tools, strategic partnerships, and platforms, to build Mastercard’s business in the Public Sector. Through her 20+ years of global experience in the payments industry, in a variety of marketing and product roles, Jody has worked across many transformative initiatives that have shaped the way we pay – from cash to card conversion, to contactless adoption, to personalized card benefits and loyalty, to digital urban transformation.

Jody is passionate about identifying consumer needs, and developing high impact solutions that create meaningful and lasting change. Jody holds a Marketing Communications, Diploma of Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology and she is based in Toronto, Canada.

Justice Nyigmah Bawole (PhD) is a Professor in the Department for Public Administration and Health Services Management, and Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Legon. Prof. Bawole obtained a PhD in Development Policy and Management from the Global Development Institute (former Institute for Development Policy and Management), University of Manchester, UK in 2013. He holds an MPhil, BSc. Administration (Public Administration Major) and Diploma in Public Administration degrees from the University of Ghana Business School obtained in 2006, 2003 and 1999 respectively. In 1995, he passed out as a trained professional teacher from Wesley College of Education (Kumasi, Ghana). Prior to his appointment as lecturer at the University of Ghana, he worked as Project Manager of an Accra-based NGO. He has taught at all levels of Ghana’s educations system.

Ana Maria Munoz Boudet is a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Gender group. Prior to this role, she was a senior social scientist in the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Global Practice with the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD). Her work focuses on gender, poverty and inequality issues. She has worked in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, Africa, and South Asia.

As part of eMBeD Ana Maria’s work has focused on socio-emotional skills development to close gaps in education and labor markets, and in changing behaviors associated with negative human capital outcomes. She has led analytical research at the country and regional level, impact evaluations of policies and programs, as well as technical assistance to client countries. Ana Maria is also part of the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab (SARGIL). She is a co-author of the World Development Report 2012 on Gender Equality and Development. A sociologist by training, she holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and doctorate studies from the University College of London.

Monica Brezzi is Head of the Governance Indicators and Performance Division in the OECD Directorate for Public Governance. She works on issues related to public governance and trust in institutions, and the use of performance information in policymaking and service delivery. She spearheaded the 2021 OECD Trust Survey, a nationally-representative survey on public trust and its drivers implemented in 22 OECD countries. In 2017-19 she was the Director of Technical Assessment and Monitoring at the Council of Europe Development Bank.

Sarah Brierley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. Dr Brierley’s research investigates state development, governance, corruption, and parties and campaigns in new democracies., with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Using survey and field experiments, as well as micro-level quantitative data, Dr Brierley investigates state development, corruption, and party politics. Dr Brierley’s research has been published or is forthcoming in the American Jourhnal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies and the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. Before working at the LSE, she was an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St Louis. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Chiara Bronchi is the Practice Manager for the Public Institutions Data and Analytics Unit in the Governance Global Practice of the World Bank Group. She leads a group of public sector economists and political scientists, who are building an innovative analytical and quantitative approach for assessing public institutions for a sustainable and inclusive development. 

Chiara has over 28 years of professional experience in leading multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary programs gained in various international organizations. She started her professional career as Economic Adviser with the U.K. government, joined the OECD in 1998 as a Young Professional, and moved to the IMF in 2003. She served at the Head of the Fiscal Affairs Office of Kosovo under the UN Protectorate before joining the World Bank in 2008, where she led country operations, technical assistance, and analytical reports on fiscal and public sector policies. In 2018-19 she was on external assignment as the Chief Thematic Officer of the ADB, where she provided strategic directions for the ADB- Strategy- 2030 thematic areas. 

She has published on taxation and public spending. Most recently, she has co-authored an approach paper for the Conclave of Ministers of Finance on financing Human Capital Development. Chiara holds a PhD in economics from Bologna University and a MSc in economics from University College of London.

Dr. Kay Brown is the Executive Secretary of Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative which is an intergovernmental organization that provides a platform for peer learning and exchange for African ministries of finance, budget and planning. Dr. Brown has also served as a country member of CABRI for a decade and has previously served as a member and Chairperson of the CABRI Management Committee. 

She is an economist by training, and her research interests have always focused on social policy making and implementation, and its impact. After lecturing at Nelson Mandela University, Dr. Brown joined the South African National Treasury (Treasury) in 2002, working on sector policy development in the new Democracy.

In 2007, she headed the Budget planning unit at the Treasury where she managed the budget allocation process, made recommendations, and ensured that these were communicated to the Executive, Parliament, and government institutions. In addition, she was responsible for the Treasury’s budget reform agenda and served as country representative in international budget reform forums and her responsibilities included South Africa’s participation in and responses to international country assessments and studies. Further, she was the Chief Executive Officer of a Constitutional institution that monitors and advises on equity in government budgets. She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town.

Youk Bunna is the Permanent Secretary of State of Civil Service with various responsibilities for public administration reform, salary system reform, evaluation of best public service delivery agencies. He is also the director of the Royal School of Administration and a member of the Supreme National Economic Council. He has been mostly involved in developing and implementing policies, strategies and reform activities related to public sector governance, public service delivery, institutional capacity improvement, performance-based management, compensation in the public sector, human resource management and development.

Youk Bunna holds a bachelor’s degree in law, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Lumière Lyon 2, France, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Monash University, Australia.

Luís Almeida Capão is as a Director of Public Participation and a Cascais Municipal Executive Council Member. In this capacity, he oversees various strategic areas including urban cleaning, waste collection, climate change initiatives, management of urban green areas, urban agriculture, green infrastructure, and promotion of Cascais biodiversity. He emphasizes the importance of citizen involvement in shaping the territory.

Prior to his current position, Luís Capão worked as a researcher in remote sensing and played a role in establishing the Agência Cascais Natura. Additionally, he served as the head of staff for the Deputy Mayor of Cascais Municipality.

Capão holds a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from ISA-UTL, a Master of Science in Information Systems Management from IMS-UNL, and an executive MBA from AESE/IESE at the Universidade de Navarra.

Martha Sika Chizuma serves as the Director of Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau, appointed to the position on 29 April 2021. Prior to this role, she held the position of Ombudsman since 2015. 

Martha's career began when she joined the Malawi Judiciary as the youngest and only woman Senior Resident Magistrate in Malawi's Northern region. Additionally, she was one of the very few working magistrates in the area. She has expressed that those foundational years were her best working years. In the early 2000s, when the Chief Resident Magistrate moved to the UK to pursue a master’s degree, Martha was left as the only presiding judge in the Mzuzu region. Later in her life, she worked as an Assistant Registrar of the High Court and a Deputy Chairperson of the Industrial Relations Court in Malawi. After working in the government sector for ten years, she took a giant leap of faith in her career by moving to the private sector to challenge herself and her abilities. She worked as the legal counsel for Limble Leaf Tobacco Company for four years and worked on a contract basis for other stakeholders while doubling as a litigant.

By virtue of being an ombudsman, she had the opportunity to assume other roles. She has served as a commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, a police service commissioner, and a member of the Prisoner Inspectorate. As an ombudsman, Martha grappled with the bull horns by taking up cases involving high corruption and public coffers looting cases that her predecessors deliberately swerved. The office, under her administration, managed to lead necessary investigations and public inquiries. Among her notable cases include ordering senior officers of the Office of the President to render a public apology as a result of a mass misuse of the public purse.

Martha holds a Master of Laws in International Economic Law from the University of East London, as well as a Bachelor of Laws with Honors (LLB) from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College.

Dr. Mickey Chopra is currently the Global Solutions Lead for Service Delivery in the Health Nutrition and Population global practice of the World Bank. He leads its work around the organization, management and quality of health services. 

Prior to this he was the Chief of Health and Associate Director of Programs at UNICEF’s New York Headquarters, leading the agency’s work on maternal, newborn and child health, immunization, pediatric HIV/AIDS, and health systems strengthening, policy and research.

During this time, he guided UNICEF toward improving investments in global health, reducing health inequities, increasing focus on women and children’s health, eliminating major infectious diseases, and strengthening UNICEFs place in the global health community. 

Additionally, he has chaired the Evaluation and Research Group at the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria to ensure that their investments are reaching those most in need and chaired the Special Committee for Large Countries for GAVI that worked on ensuring increased coverage of vaccines for Nigeria and India in particular. He led the technical team that oversaw the UN Commission on Essential Medicines and Commodities that has resulted in over $250 million being raised to address the bottlenecks that prevent cheap and lifesaving commodities from reaching the poorest families.

Dr. Chopra is qualified as a medical doctor with an additional degree in medical sociology from the University of Southampton, England, Master's in Public health (Primary Health in Developing Countries) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1997 and a Ph.D. from Faculty of Medicine, University of Uppsala in Sweden.

Dr. Chopra has published over 200 international peer-reviewed papers and contributed to numerous book chapters concerned with international child health and nutrition.

Spyridon Demetriou joined the World Bank’s Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group in April 2020 as a Senior Operations officer, with a focus supporting its analytic and strategic work. Prior, Spyridon was a senior advisor to the World Bank on FCV issues, and worked in the FCV Group supporting country teams in the Middle East, West and Central Africa and Ukraine. Spyridon has also held senior management and advisory positions in the UN, leading peacebuilding, stabilization and post-conflict recovery initiatives and working at the forefront of international efforts to integrate peacebuilding, humanitarian and development interventions in a number of fragile and conflict-affected countries. These included Lebanon, where he headed the UN Coordination Office at the forefront of the Syrian refugee response; Democratic Republic of Congo, where he managed an integrated and multi-sectoral program bringing together UN peacekeeping, humanitarian and development assets to stabilize the conflict affected eastern regions; and Haiti, where he piloted approaches to reduce armed violence through development approaches in the urban slum areas of the capital. Spyridon has sectoral expertise in economic recovery, security sector reform and transitional governance, and an academic and research background in state-building and transitional governance, with a focus on processes of state formation and conflict in the former Soviet Union. He holds a BA in Economics and History from Brown University, and a Master’s Degree in International Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Ousmane Diagana, a Mauritanian national, is the Regional Vice President for Western and Central Africa as of July 1, 2020. In this position, Mr. Diagana leads relations with 22 countries, and oversees a portfolio of projects, technical assistance and financial resources worth more than $40 billion.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Diagana was the Vice President of the World Bank Group Human Resources. In that role, he provided overall strategic leadership on human resource matters to the entire World Bank Group and oversaw the development and implementation of the World Bank Group People Strategy, and Human Resources policies, programs and services.

From October 2015 to January 2018, he was the Vice President for Ethics and Business Conduct (EBC) and Chief Ethics Officer of the World Bank Group.

Mr. Diagana is recognized as an organizational leader, personal mentor and a professional role model. He brings to this role a deep knowledge of Bank Group operations, a reputation for innovative and strategic thinking, recognized managerial skills, and country office perspective.

Previously, he was World Bank Country Director for Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea, and Togo, based in Abidjan and prior to that he held the position of Country Director for Mali, Niger, Chad, and Guinea, based in Bamako. Between 2006 and 2009, Mr. Diagana was Country Manager in Niger and from 2004 to 2006, he was Program Leader in Morocco. In these capacities, he effectively led diverse, multi-disciplinary teams to deliver innovative strategies and operations —including in fragile and conflict-affected countries. In 2009, Mr. Diagana received the Good Manager Award from the World Bank Group Staff Association in recognition of his leadership skills.

Ousmane Diagana joined the World Bank in 1992. He has degrees in economics, finance, and planning, a certificate in education policies and analysis and speaks French, English, Arabic, Soninke, Fulani, and Wolof.

Since joining the World Bank in 2006, Saidou has worked on Public Financial Management in West and Central Africa francophone countries. Saidou’s governance experience is deep and broad and includes Tax Administration, Fiduciary Management, PFM, Fiscal Decentralization, and Governance in sectors (Education, Health). He also has strong operation experience with a broad variety of strategic Country Engagement Instruments and Programs (Systematic Country Diagnostic, Budget support, Program for result operations etc.).  Before joining the Bank, Saidou was Audit Supervisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cote d’Ivoire; and Audit Manager West Africa for AKFED (Agha Khan Fund for Economic development). Saidou is aFrench CPA (Diplomé d’ Expertise Comptable - France); and holds a Certificate of Executive PFM studies from The Havard Kennedy School of Government (USA); and Master Degree in Business Administration from Polytechnic Institute of Yamoussoukro (Cote d’Ivoire).

Navroz K Dubash is a Senior Fellow, Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), India. Earlier, as Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, he conducted research and wrote on climate change, energy, air pollution, water policy, and the politics of regulation in the developing world.

Navroz has been actively engaged in the climate debate as a scholar, policy adviser and activist for 25 years. He was instrumental in establishing the global Climate Action Network in 1990, and has since written widely about climate politics, policy and governance. He is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth Assessment), advises the UNEP Emissions Gap Report Steering Committee, and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UN Climate Action Summit. Within India, Navroz has been a member of the group that developed India’s Low Carbon Strategy for Inclusive Growth and the Committee for a Long Term Strategy for Low Carbon Development for India; he continues to serve on advisory committees on energy, water and air pollution. In 2015, he was conferred the 12th T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on Indian and global climate change governance.

Navroz has a long track record of publishing and writing, including two authored books, ten edited or co-edited books or special issues of journals, and more than seventy journal articles and book chapters. His recent paper entitled ‘India’s energy and emissions future: an interpretive analysis of model scenarios’ was awarded the Emerging Regions Award for 2018 by Environmental Research Letters, and his book Tubewell Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2002) was awarded the S.R. Sen Award for Best Book in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.

His recent work includes an agenda-setting edited collection of papers on Varieties of Climate Governance in Environmental Politics supplemented by a policy forum article in Science; India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development (Oxford University Press, 2019), a collection of writing by leading scholars, practitioners and policymakers on climate change; and a co-edited book entitled Mapping Power (Oxford University Press, 2018), a state-by-state analysis of electricity politics in India.

As part of his academic work, Navroz serves as an associate editor of Climate Policy, and is a member of the editorial boards of Global Environmental Politics, Energy Research in Social Science, Environmental Policy and Governance, and the Journal of Environment and Development.

Navroz has previously worked at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and the World Resources Institute. He holds an MA and PhD in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB cum laude in public and international affairs from Princeton University. 

Nana Kwasi Agyekum Dwamena served as the Head of the Civil Service in Ghana. His career as a Civil Servant spans over a period of 26 years starting as a Management Analyst in 1988 at the Management Services Department (MSD). In 1995 Nana Agyekum Dwamena was posted to the Office of the Head of Civil Service where he worked as Head of the Reform Co-ordinating Unit. In 2005, he was subsequently appointed as the Director of the Performance Management Division. As the Executive Secretary, he actively led the process of restructuring Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Districts (MDAs & MMDAs), the establishment of the Local Government Service, determining appropriate staffing levels, norms, grades and skills. As the team leader, his task was to organize and ensure the implementation of Performance Improvement Initiatives.

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena attended Ghana Secondary School, Koforidua, where he obtained his Ordinary and Advanced Level certificates. He subsequently did his under graduate and post-graduate programs at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana and ALMEDA University U.S.A.

David Evans serves as the Principal Economic Advisor for the Social Sector at the Inter-American Development Bank. Prior to this role, he held positions as a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a visiting professor at the Center for Development Economics at Williams College, and a lead economist at the World Bank. His research primarily focuses on education, health, gender, social protection, early childhood, and impact evaluation, with a keen interest in ensuring that rigorous research informs policy decisions. Evans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, awarded in 2005.

Manuela V. Ferro was appointed World Bank Regional Vice President for East Asia and Pacific (EAP) in September 2021. Prior to this appointment, she was World Bank Vice President of Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS), where she oversaw the World Bank’s corporate policies on financing and analytical services.

A Portuguese national, Ms. Ferro has over 25 years of hands-on and leadership experience in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. Throughout her professional career, she has shaped creative development solutions for countries as diverse as post-conflict, low-income all the way to upper middle-income countries. She brings to her current position a track record of modernization of operations policies, a history of forging productive partnerships with client countries and development partners, and a focus on client services.

An economist and an engineer by training, Ms. Ferro worked in technical and corporate positions at the World Bank. She previously served as the Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in the Middle East and North Africa, where she oversaw the team of economists and governance specialists. She also served as the World Bank’s Director for Strategy and Operations for Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing the operational and analytical work in this region.

Ms. Ferro was also the Manager of the Country Economics unit in OPCS, overseeing country strategies, development policy financing, and guarantees. She led the launch of the World Bank’s new policies on guarantees, the introduction of Catastrophe Development Policy Operations with a deferred draw down option (CAT DDO) to help clients prepare for and respond to natural disasters, and the modernization of development policy financing with a deferred draw down option (DPF DDO). All are now broadly utilized. 

Ms. Ferro joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1994. Prior to joining the World Bank, Ms. Ferro was an Assistant Professor at The Technical University of Lisbon, from which she holds an MSc./Engineering Degree.  Ms. Ferro holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Applied Economics from Stanford University in California. She also worked for the Government of Portugal on EU accession matters. Her professional interests include macroeconomics, game theory, international trade, and labor economics.

Mihriban Müge Finkel is an Associate Professor of International Development at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), Director of the Ford Institute for Human Security and Co-Director of the Gender Inequality Research Lab (GIRL) at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Finkel’s research focuses on gendered gaps impacting women’s public and political participation. Since 2015, she has been collaborating with the United Nations Development Program to expand the availability and quality of data on gender equality in public administration and evidence-based policymaking.

Before her academic appointment at GSPIA, Dr. Finkel worked as a Social Development Specialist for the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank, consulted for the International Food Policy Research Institute, and worked on gender-focused projects in Yemen, Egypt, and Morocco. She has program expertise in Gender Analysis, Community-Driven Development, Social and Environmental Impact Assessment, and Participatory Program Development.

Dr. Finkel was named the Kabak Faculty Fellow in Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh’s Global Studies Center for 2024-2027. The Fellowship is given to a faculty member whose work explores the process of international conflict resolution and peacemaking, including the role of women, nongovernmental organizations, and community-based initiatives. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in International Relations from the International University of Japan, and a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University, Türkiye.

Simon is a British national and strategic leader with over 30 years of international experience in the development, investment and commercial banking arenas. Based in Washington D.C and London while operating internationally, Simon now provides a unique brand of custom event design, facilitation, moderation and teambuilding services to corporate clients. He offers customized solutions in the following:

• In-person, virtual and hybrid Event design, planning, facilitation & Master of Ceremonies services for small to large groups (10-750+)
• Plenary and Panel Moderation
• Teambuilding event design and implementation
• Team and individual coaching

Simon can be reached at: www.linkedin.com/in/simonvfowler

Marianna Saldivar is currently the Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit in Paraguay. Her career began in the public sector at the national procurement office, where she gained substantial experience in government operations and legal frameworks. She served as a coordinator at the Presidential Delivery Unit from 2014 to 2018, focusing on policy implementation and coordination.

In the private sector, Marianna worked in the banking industry, starting in the Legal Department and advancing to a project manager role in IT. She managed digital banking projects, integrating her legal expertise with technological innovations.

Recently, she returned to the Presidential Delivery Unit, combining her skills in law, public policy, and technology to improve public service delivery. Marianna holds a Master’s degree in Corporate Law and a law degree from Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción".

Francisco Gaetani currently serves as the Extraordinary Secretary for State Transformation in the Ministry of Public Sector Management and Innovation in Brazil. Francisco Gaetani has held positions of Executive Secretary, Deputy-Executive Secretary and Secretary of Public Management of the Ministry of Planning. He was also Executive Secretary at the Ministry of Environment (MMA). He served also as Director of formation at the National School of Public Administration. Prior to this role, Francisco served as the Coordinator of the Professional Master Program at Getúlio Vargas Foundation and Board President of the Republica.org Institute. Francisco has worked for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), holding the position, among others, of General Coordinator in Brazil and UN Ambassador in Brazil. Francisco received a PhD in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Public Policy also from LSE.

Arturo Herrera is the Global Director for Governance Global Practice in the Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group (EFI) Vice Presidency at the World Bank. Arturo joined the World Bank in 2010 as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. He held various positions in the Bank including as Sector Manager in LAC, Practice Manager in Governance Global Practice for the LAC and East Asia and the Pacific regions in the Global Unit before leaving the World Bank Group in 2018.  

Between 2018 and 2021 he has held leadership positions in the Government of Mexico as Co-Head of the Finance Team in Presidential Transition Team, Deputy Finance Minister and, most recently, as Minister of Finance and Public Credit. As Global Director for Governance, Herrera’s priorities include leading the formulation of strategy and engagement of the Bank’s work on public institutions and country-level governance, especially in fragile, conflict and violent settings; maximizing the effectiveness of operational support for public financial management and public procurement; fostering excellence in the Governance Practice’s work on public sector administration and operational support for legal and judicial reforms. Arturo has also taught Monetary, Banking, Macro and Microeconomics at both El Colegio de Mexico and New York University where he completed his doctoral studies in Economics.

Pooja is the Chief Partnerships Office at Apolitical, a global network and social learning platform for government. Apolitical helps government transform itself by connecting public servants to the latest and best ideas, skills, and community they need to solve today’s complex challenges. Prior to Apolitical, Pooja was the Founding and Managing Partner of Conduit Connect, an impact investing platform for a community of investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. She was the co-founder and former CEO of UnLtd India for 11 years, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. She also co-founded Bombay Connect, a co-working space, and Journeys for Change, offering immersive experiences for global leaders to learn from entrepreneurs. She is an advisor to private family offices on their impact investment portfolios. Pooja is a TED India Fellow, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and an Aspen India fellow.

Zahid Hasnain, Lead Governance Specialist, joined the World Bank in the Islamabad office in 2002. His areas of expertise are public administration reform; public sector employment, compensation, and management; digital governance; and political economy. He has done operational and analytical work in all regions of the World Bank, was a core member of the World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends and has published several academic papers in peer reviewed journals. He leads the Global Program on Public Administration reform, and co-leads the Bureaucracy Lab and the Public Employment and Management Community of Practice. Zahid has a BA in Physics and Government from Cornell University, a Masters in Development from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Delfina Irazusta is Minister, Presidential Delivery Unit, Paraguay. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Local Innovation Network, an NGO that works with mayors and other local government officials in Argentina, providing them with the tools and resources they need to improve their management capacities. Irazusta also created the Mayors Language and the Global Map for Local Solutions, two initiatives that promote knowledge management among mayors around the world. With her team, she is working to find new methodologies for the design of public policies in cities. Irazusta is part of the Ashoka network of entrepreneurs and was selected to take part in the first Young Leaders Summit by the Obama Foundation.

Abubakar Kimpa Isah is currently the Director of ICT at the Federal Ministry of Education, where his adept leadership and proficiency in overseeing substantial projects have led to the successful completion of several ICT projects in the sector. The creation of three e-learning solutions for the nation, catering to over one million users, showcases a noteworthy impact on the education sector. Mr. Isa's commitment to optimizing processes and boosting efficiency is evident in his role in automating the Ministry’s certificate verification portal. Earlier, he worked at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, where he contributed to the development and implementation of IPPIS and GIFMIS, to underscore his expertise in financial and information systems.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Physics with Electronics and a Masters degree in Geophysics in addition to professional certifications. He is a fellow of the National Computer Society whose professional background reflects a compelling blend of technical prowess, strategic foresight, and a consistent record of successfully delivering ICT projects.

Ms. Safia Aamir Isran is a Provincial Civil Service Officer in Sindh province of Pakistan. She joined bureaucracy in 2005. She has been serving in her current post since April 19, 2024 and coordinates with federal government as well as provincial government departments. 

Ms. Safia brings over 19 years of dedicated and passionate experience in public sector and served in many key positions in provincial as well as district governments. She has vast experience in public sector reforms, public financial management reforms, provincial budget formulation, provincial development portfolio, investment of public funds, employees related matters, pension reforms, health insurance policy. 

Ms. Safia holds M.A degree in English Literature from her country. She is studying her second M.A in Economics and Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Management from Pakistan.

David Jackson is the Director of Local Development at the UN Capital Development Fund. In May 2013, he was appointed Director of UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice in New York. This unit is UNCDF’s centre of excellence and innovative fund for local government finance and local economic development finance in the world’s 47 least developed countries. In this position he manages portfolio of local development finance programmes with a focus on fiscal decentralization, infrastructure development, climate resilience grants, municipal finance and private sector investments, private sector investments. David has over 30 years of experience in Local Development. 

In 2009, he became Head of UNCDF Asia and Pacific office where he designed the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, a global mechanism that enables local governments in the least developed countries to access climate finance for resilient investments. Recently, he has focused on the challenges of unlocking domestic capital markets for investments in local economic development.

In the 1980s, he worked in London local government on the plan for employment, affordable housing and open space along the River Thames, including the park that became the site of the London Eye. He spent the 1990s in Mozambique for the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), where he designed and piloted a national system of local government finance for capital investment that was taken to scale by government. Returning to the United Kingdom in 2001, he ran a consulting company supporting local development in over 10 African and Asian countries through governments, the World Bank and other clients. David rejoined the UN in 2006, serving as Decentralisation Advisor to the Government of Indonesia and UNDP, where he was instrumental in developing the UN support to the local government reforms in Aceh province following the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Peace Agreement.

Mr. Acosta has served as Costa Rica's Minister of Finance since May 2022. He played a significant role in negotiating and designing the Rapid Financing Instrument (RSF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the same year.

Following his time in government, Mr. Acosta worked as an Economic Advisor at the Superintendency of Pensions from 2020 to 2022, focusing on pension sector oversight and regulation. He also contributed to the legislative process of Costa Rica as a Parliamentary Advisor from 2014 to 2018.

Before assuming his current position, Mr. Acosta held key governmental and financial roles. He served as Vice-Minister of Revenues from 2018 to 2019, contributing to the implementation of the 2018 fiscal reform, which introduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) in Costa Rica. Additionally, Mr. Acosta has a background in the financial sector, having served as Deputy General Manager of Banco Nacional Seguros from 2010 to 2011.

Jelena Janevska joined NALAS Secretariat in May 2012, as Knowledge and Communication Manager. She has over 22 years of professional experience in the development area, focusing primarily on democracy building, good governance, rule of law, civil society development, decentralisation and local development, working for: UN, DPK International/USAID, Center for Institutional Development, PEP International/SIDA, Institute for Sustainable Communities/USAID and the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. Ms. Janevska is a university lecturer (Modules: Crisis Communication, Public Relations, Business Communication, Project Management) and has extensive consultant and training experience. She holds a MSc degree in Local Development from the University of Trento, Italy, and a BA degree in Journalism and Communications from the University in Skopje.  

Hemang Jani is a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for India. Prior to this role, he was a Secretary of the Capacity Building Commission of India. He has also worked as a Senior Private Sector Specialist at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, USA. He has also worked with the Government of India, as an Officer on Special Duty (Knowledge and Innovation) in the Prime Minister’s office. During this time, he conceived and created Atal Innovation Mission.

He is an experienced professional in public policy, governance and innovation systems. For the past 18 years, he has worked towards improving public service delivery through technology, designing national innovation frameworks, applying technology and innovation in governance, and enabling private sector development at state, federal and international levels.

Before moving to the development sector, he spent a few years with leading consulting firms. He regularly engages in poetry, photography, reading and traveling to stay self-motivated!

Mr. Jung Young Jun is the Deputy Minister for Planning & Coordination Deputy Minister, at the Planning and Coordination Office of the Ministry of Interior and Safety, Republic of Korea. 

Before his appointment as Deputy Minister on December 4, 2023, he served as Director General for Human Resources Planning, Director General for Policy Planning, and Director of Citation and Awards Division of MOIS. He also had career experiences in various institutions in the public administration sector. He worked as Director General for Regional Innovation of Presidential Committee for Balanced National Development, Deputy Director General for Complaints Counseling of the Government Complaints Counseling Center, Head of the City Planning and Coordination Office of Daegu Metropolitan City, and Assistant Secretary to the President for Public Administration of the Office of the President. 

He holds a master's degree in Public Administration from Yeungnam University and a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Sungkyunkwan University.

In her role as PS-MDD Kusobile Kamwambi oversees the design, development and implementation of Strategic Plans, Performance Management Systems, Service Charters, Organization Structures, Job Descriptions, and Decentralization plans for all Government Ministries Provinces and Spending Agencies.  

She has over 16 years professional experience in Human Capital Management and Development and Public Service Reform. As a performance management systems’ expert and thought leader in public service reform, she has contributed to various bodies of work at analytical and advisory level, notably;

• Decentralization Policy Development and Implementation   

• Civil Service Learning and Capacity Building Reforms

• Public Service Performance Management Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks

• Transformation Strategies; Good Governance, Process and Digital Transformation

• Public Service Change Management and Cultural Remodeling Initiatives   

• Project Delivery Frameworks

• HR Policy Reform Development and Implementation   

She Holds a Bachelor’s Degree In Human And Social Studies From The University Of South Africa and a Master’s Degree In Strategic Human Resource Management From The Copperbelt University, Zambia.  

Alma Kanani is a Practice Manager in the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank.  In this position she oversees the World Bank programs and partnerships on governance and institutions in China, Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.  Prior to this position she was the Manager for the World Bank’s Global Unit on Domestic Revenue Mobilization in the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice. She has spent the last 20 years working in different regions and corporate positions, advising and supporting client countries on fiscal policy and public finance issues, including in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.  She holds a graduate degree in Economic Policy Management from Columbia University in New York.  Prior to joining the Bank, she served as the Director of the Budget Department of the Government of Albania, that was responsible for preparing and managing the national budget.

Yasir Khan, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and a Fellow at the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh and Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre at LUMS, focuses his research at the nexus of Development Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Political Economy. His research dives into various aspects, including the incentives and preferences of public sector personnel, motivations of politicians, and social norms influencing women's participation in politics. Khan's scholarly contributions have been featured in esteemed publications such as the Journal of European Economic Association, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. Employing field experiments and quasi-experimental methods, he continues to explore and advance knowledge in his ongoing research projects.

Khan earned his Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan as a National Outreach Program student. Following his undergraduate education, Khan pursued dual master's degrees at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University New York.

Ayesha Khurshid is an incoming Young Professional in the Governance Global Practice of the East Asia and Pacific Region. Ayesha joined the Governance and Institution Building unit of the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation Department, and the Bureaucracy Lab, as Survey Lead in 2021, and has led analytical assessments of public administrations in over 12 countries to strengthen their effectiveness through targeted governance interventions. In addition, Ayesha has led recent analytical work on Human Resources for Health in Mali and Madagascar, with further engagements planned. Ayesha has contributed to global knowledge products on Governance through her work on the Global Survey of Public Servants, Government Analytics in Europe, and a chapter on surveys of public servants in the Government Analytics Handbook. 

Prior to joining the World Bank, she was a Consultant at Oxford Policy Management where her work centered around evaluating health and education interventions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Ayesha holds an MSc in Applied Social Data Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford.

Mr. Woong Joe Ko has been working in the MOIS for more than two decades. He mostly served in the area of human resources development and international cooperation. He was seconded to the IDB from 2015 to 2018 and performed various tasks for the development of digital government in the LACs. He also took a position at the UNCTAD from 2020 to 2023 as a secondee and supported the UNCTAD’s projects on e-Commerce and digital economy. He graduated from Seoul National University and obtained his doctorate degree in public administration from the University of Exeter, UK. 

Victoria Kwakwa, a Ghanaian national, is the Regional Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa. An economist and development expert with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Kwakwa leads the Bank’s engagement with 26 countries. She oversees an active portfolio of 313 operations totaling $58 billion and an extensive program of cutting-edge analytic work, technical assistance, and policy advice.

At the core of Ms. Kwakwa’s vision is a stable, integrated and resilient region with dynamic economies and prosperous societies in which all citizens, notably women, children and youth enjoy equality of opportunity. 

Under her leadership, the World Bank is providing vital support to countries as they face a series of complex, multifaceted challenges including the COVID-19 crisis, climate shocks, food- and energy-fueled inflation and rising debt levels. Her priorities include promoting private sector jobs and economic transformation, building human capital, strengthening climate resilience, agricultural productivity and food security, and improving access to critical infrastructure. Reducing the drivers of fragility and conflict, promoting gender equality and regional integration cut across all these areas of work.

Prior to her appointment on July 1, 2022, Dr. Kwakwa served as the Vice President for Corporate Strategic Initiatives, working closely with the World Bank Managing Director of Operations and other operational and corporate units on select high priority initiatives to enhance the World Bank’s operational delivery and impact. She also served as the Vice President for East Asia Pacific from April 2016 to August 2021, where she led the Bank’s engagement with 23 diverse clients ranging from countries on the cusp of high income, established middle income, to lower middle-income countries.

In addition to her work in the East Asia and Pacific region, Dr. Kwakwa has extensive work experience in Africa including in Nigeria where she led the Bank’s economic work between 2001 and 2006.  She was also Country Manager for Rwanda from 2007 to 2009.

Dr. Kwakwa brings to this role a deep knowledge of Bank Group operations, and strong experience working on issues related to debt and macroeconomic resilience, reforms for economic competitiveness and growth, and fiscal decentralization. She has a track record of putting people at the center of her work, listening to beneficiaries and striving for good outcomes for her clients and their citizens.

Her work has spanned a wide range of development issues including rural development, infrastructure services provision and financing, climate resilience and mitigation, developing human capital, and leveraging the potential of urbanization for development. She has built enduring partnerships with private sector, civil society and other international actors and has demonstrated her ability to mobilize these diverse stakeholders behind shared interests.

Dr. Kwakwa began her career at the World Bank as a Young Professional. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from the University of Ghana, and a master’s degree and PhD in economics from Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada.

Tracey joined the Bank in 2001 as a Young Professional. She has held various positions in Washington DC and in Country Offices including as a Senior Economist in Eastern Europe, East Africa and South Asia regions and as Program Leader in Middle East and North Africa region and Lead Economist in Latin America. Her most recent assignment being Practice Manager in the Governance Global unit in the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Vice Presidency before moving to the Africa West region. Tracey has extensive experience in government expenditure analysis, fiscal policy and managing public finances. In addition, she has worked on open government and fiscal transparency, tax and revenue policy and administration, and public service delivery. Prior to joining the World Bank Tracey worked in the U.K. Government and held economist positions in the Prime Minister’s Policy and Innovation Unit, the Department for International Development, and the Department for Transport.  In addition to Cairo, London and Washington DC; Tracey has lived and worked in Fiji, Kenya, and Bangladesh. Tracey has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Economics from the University of Essex, U.K.

Conrado Ricardo Ramos Larraburu has extensive experience in the academic field as a teacher and director of various departments at universities in his country. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including: “The politics of patronage appointments in Latin American central Administrations” (2023); “The Emerald Handbook of Public Administration in Latin America. Emerald Publishing Limited” (2021); “Roles, trust and skills: A typology of patronage appointments” (2019), among others.

In the public sphere he served as Advisor to the President of the Republic, Dr. Tabaré Vázquez (2005-2007); Deputy Director of the Office of Planning and Budget – OPP, (2007-2010); candidate for the Vice Presidency of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay (2014), Senator of the Republic, (2015-2020); and Director of the National Office of the Civil Service (ONSC), a position he held until December 2023.

He has served as a consultant for various cooperation organizations, among which are: World Bank; Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

He studied political science at the Argentine John F. Kennedy University (1986), and a master's degree in social sciences at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – FLACSO, Buenos Aires, (1990). He has a doctorate in political science from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany (2004).

Vishalini Lawrence is the Senior Director of DAI’s Resilience and Stability practice. Vishalini brings 15 years of experience leading peacebuilding, resilience, stabilization, and governance programs in Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia, and Somalia. In her role, she works collaboratively with international, national, and local partners to strengthen resilience systems, through inclusive and locally led processes. 

In Somalia, she witnessed transformative change in some of the most marginalized and insecure areas as a result of co-design and co-investment with Somali communities and the private sector and learned about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to delivering aid with dignity and impact. In Malaysia, she was inspired by the brave actions of civil society organizations, most of whom were women or youth-led, advancing democratic reform to shape a more inclusive and fair society. In Cambodia, she saw the establishment of sustainable channels for public-private dialogue and improved access to market information for entrepreneurs, charting the course for a stronger and more open business environment. She holds an M.A. in International Development Studies from Ohio University and a B.A. in International Studies from Ferrum College.

Eunhyo Lee is the Director of International Cooperation Division at the Ministry of Personnel Management in the Republic of Korea.  

She has actively engaged in the field of public Human Resource Management of the Korean government since 2008. She has successfully devised and implemented various policies related to public personnel management, including the formulation of public HRM strategies, recruitment systems, career development, and public service ethics.

Over the past two years, she has served as the Director for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Personnel Management of Korea, where she established collaborative relationships with diverse international organizations and foreign governments.

Eunhyo holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Seoul National University.

Arianna Legovini is the Director of the Development Impact (DIME) department at the World Bank. She created the DIME model to transform the way data and impact evaluation evidence is generated and channeled into policy action. The approach increases the returns to development projects by wide margins. The model is based on an iterative process of evidence-informed adaptive change. In the DIME model, demand for data and impact evaluation research is created by putting clients first, releasing their financial and technical constraints, building capacities, and generating contextually relevant and highly influential evidence. She forged alliances with senior management and donors on knowledge priorities and case selection, raising $220M in IE research financing, to help shape the design of $22 billion in development finance. She restructured the production of impact evaluation research from piecemeal to programmatic to optimize economies of scale, introducing specialized administrative, review and data services to increase technical quality. Instituting strict procedures for research technical standards, ethics, transparency, reproducibility and data privacy and security, made DIME a global leader in research quality and credibility, through the provision of open-source tools and training for the global research community. She attracted exceptional talent to her team, aligning incentives to spur innovation, teamwork and high impact public goods, and fostering diversity and equal representation of women, and their intellectual contribution, to research. She serves as a senior adviser to a score of multilateral and bilateral agencies and collaborates with more than 300 institutions around the world.

Nele Leosk, PhD, serves as the Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, being responsible for Estonia’s digital diplomacy and global partnerships. She co-initiated and co-leads GovStack Initiative.

Over the past twenty years, Nele has led digital transformation reforms and initiatives in more than forty countries in Central and Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. She also has a hands-on experience in the development and implementation of public online services and e-participation tools. Apart from government work, she has experienced the life of international and inter-governmental organisations such as the UNDP, OECD, UNU-eGOV as well as academia. As a founder and executive, she has navigated challenging circumstances of establishing a consulting firm and securing funding.

As a promoter of an open and inclusive digital society, Nele is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Technology Policy, Chair of the Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy Network, and ITU Standardisation Symposium. She is active in several networks on women in tech, and co-founded Women in GovTech Challenge.  

Nele holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (EUI), Italy. She is a former Fulbright-Schuman grantee at the National Centre for Digital Government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at the Governance Lab at New York University, USA. She continues lecturing on legal aspects of information society, technology policy and technology foreign policy.

Alberto Leyton is the Practice Manager for Governance in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank. At this position Mr. Leyton leads World Bank activities to support governance and public sector modernization activities in the region. He is currently providing support to the governments of Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Central American countries in the region and more globally in Indonesia, Romania, and other Eastern European countries, helping develop institutional capabilities in the areas of performance management, revenue administration and public financial management.

Mr. Leyton joined the World Bank in 2002 and has since worked as a Senior Public Sector Management Specialist for the Latin American and for the Europe and Central Asian Regions, Country Manager for El Salvador, and advisor to the Regional Vice President for Latin America. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Leyton had a 15-year career in the public sector in Bolivia where he took up senior management positions including as Vice-Minister of Planning and Finance and Minister of the Presidency. He holds advanced degrees in the areas of Sociology, Statistics and Public Administration.

Jean-Pierre Lihau is a notable politician from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Presently, Lihau holds the position of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Civil Service in the Lukonde cabinet. Jean-Pierre is a member of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, a prominent political entity in the country.

In his current role, he is entrusted with the crucial task of overseeing and enhancing the civil service sector, streamlining administrative processes, and fostering innovation within public services.

Sarah Lister has been the Director of the Oslo Governance Centre since May 2015. She has had a distinguished career as a policy researcher working on governance and civic engagement, with a focus on transitional societies. Immediately prior to taking up the OGC Directorship, Sarah was with BBC Media Action, the development

NGO of the BBC, where she was the Head of the Advisory and Policy Team and then Acting Director of Research and Learning. She has had a long previous association with UNDP having worked at the Oslo Governance Centre for six years, first as Governance and Civil Society Advisor, and then as Democratic Governance Advisor, with particular responsibility for emerging trends in governance, and social accountability. Prior to this, she held research positions at the London School of Economics, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul, and the Institute of Development Studies, UK. Sarah has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe and holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics.

Anamarija Magazinovic has over 10 years of experience with working in Bosnia and Herzegovina public health sector as a government official. She currently holds the position of Assistant Minister for Finance and General Affairs in the Federal Ministry of Health.

Anamarija’s expertise and responsibilities span across health and public administration functions and include management of sector and institution level strategic planning processes, policy development and coordination, public finance management, and costing and budgeting of health services. Anamarija has an intensive operational experience with designing and implementing the World Bank’s and development partners’ technical assistance and investment projects, ensuring their alignment with government reform priorities and compliance with operational requirements.

As a member of various working groups, Anamarija contributed to developing studies on financial protection and prevention and control of non-communicable diseases supported by WHO and other development partners.

Anamarija holds an MSc diploma in International Economics from the University of Sarajevo, Certificate of WHO Barcelona course on health financing for universal health coverage, Certificate of World Bank Group's Global Flagship Course: Health Systems Strengthening and Sustainable Financing.

William F. Maloney is Chief Economist for the Latin America and the Caribbean region at the World Bank. Previously he was Chief Economist for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, and Trade and Competitiveness; he was also Global Lead on Innovation and Productivity. Prior to the Bank, he was an assistant professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1990-1997) and then Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America until 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. From 2011 to 2014 he was visiting professor at the University of the Andes and worked closely with the Colombian government on innovation and firm upgrading issues.

Mr. Maloney received his PhD in economics from the University of California Berkeley (1990), his BA from Harvard University (1981), and he studied at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia (1982–83).

He has published in general academic journals on issues related to international trade and finance, developing country labor markets, and innovation and growth including The Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Review: Insights, The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal, and The Journal of the European Economic Association as well as the leading field journals in development and trade. He has also written several flagship publications of the Latin American division of the Bank, including including Informality: Exit and Exclusion;  Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny and Lessons from NAFTA, Does What you Export Matter: In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policy.

As part of the World Bank Productivity Project that he directs he published The Innovation Paradox: Developing Country Capabilities the Unrealized Potential of Technological Catch-Up, Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture as well as Place, Productivity, and Prosperity: Spatially Targeted Policies for Regional Development.

His work has been referenced in the New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist as well as in press throughout Latin America and Asia. He has appeared on CNN en Español, National Public Radio, Vietnamese National Television among other venues. According to Research Papers in Economics (RePec), Maloney is ranked among the top 10% of economists worldwide, based on publications and scholarly citations.

María José Geraldina Martelo is Undersecretary of Innovation in the Argentine National Government. She has been responsible for the total digital transformation of the National Government and the City of Buenos Aires over the past16 years.

She has over 25 years of experience in large-scale technology projects across Latin America and is a specialist in artificial intelligence. 

Daniel Medimorec joined the Austrian Public Administration in 2007, the Austrian Federal Chancellery (2007-2018), the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (2018-2022) and later the Federal Ministry of Finance (2022-2024). From 2007 to 2014 he furthermore was research staff at the Department for E-Governance and Administration of the Danube University Krems (Austria). With Mai 2024, the competence for digitalisation and E-Government has been transferred back to the Federal Chancellery. Since 2018 he serves as the Deputy Head of Unit for International Affairs within the Directorate Digitalisation and E-Government. Daniel holds a Master in Political Science, International Relation and International Development from the University of Vienna. 

Lyn Mengich is the Chairperson of the Kenya Salaries and Remuneration Commission. She is a human resources (HR) professional and business leader, with over 25 years cross-industry experience, holding strategic leadership and board positions in Kenya, the East African region and Africa. Her experience spans public traded and private sector organizations.

Highlights of her experience include; Talent and Change Manager for Shell Oil Products Africa, Regional HR Manager for 11 countries in the East African region, HR Director for Barclays Bank, HR Director for Kenya Commercial Bank, HR Director for Smith Kline Beecham-East Africa and CEO Nuevo Consulting. She has also held board positions at Jamii Bora Bank, National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Sovereign Group.

Mrs. Mengich is a fellow of the Institute of Human Resource Management – Kenya and holds a Master of Science in Human Resource Management, Executive Development Program from Cornel University, Advanced Management Program from Strathmore Business School (SBS) and IESE Business School in Spain. She has acquired extensive knowledge in leadership, governance, management and HR management from different development programs in and outside the country.

Dipu Moni is a Bangladeshi politician and Minister of Social Welfare of Bangladesh. She is also a Member of Parliament. She was Minister of Education and Minister of Foreign. She was appointed the first female Foreign Minister on 6 January 2009.  

Gregorio Montero serves as the Vice Minister of Public Administration Reform and Modernization with the Government of Dominican Republic.

Ms. Lavinia Niculescu serves at the Secretary General of the National Agency for Civil Servants with the Government of Romania.

Lavinia Niculescu is the Secretary General of the National Agency for Civil Servant and has been strategically and actively involved in the design and implementation of civil service modernisation and reform measures since 2007. She is a highly qualified career civil servant with more than 20 years of experience in public administration in Romania, in reference areas such as strategic management, project management, human resource management, training and international relations (director and high civil servant within the Agency).

Key competences:  

Strategic management: visionary thinking, system and organisational analysis, change management, persuasive communication, problem solving, fostering cooperation.

Project management: coordination, direction, organisation and control of the implementation of externally funded projects, including coordination of the NRRP reform/investment measures under the responsability of the Agency

Human resource management: development and implementation of public policies, with extensive experience in recruitment and selection of civil servants, including senior civil servants

Training: design and delivery of training programs on various topics relevant to public administration, such as performance appraisal and project management

Communication and public relations: building and maintaining relationships and partnerships with national and international organisations, promoting reform measures and flagship civil service initiatives

Ms Niculescu's academic career began with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Public Administration, followed by a Bachelor's degree in European and International Law and an Executive Master's degree in Human Resources Management.

Daniel Ortega Nieto is a Lead Public Sector Specialist in the Public Administration unit of the Governance Global Practice at the World Bank. In this capacity Daniel has supported projects and analytical work in Argentina, Bangladesh, Croatia, Ecuador, Mexico, Mozambique, and Uruguay, among many others.

Prior to this role, Daniel led the World Bank’s public financial management program in Indonesia; supporting reforms in areas such as budgeting, treasury, civil service, and digital government. Previously, he led the public sector management operations in Brazil, as well as research and technical support in governance and public financial management. He designed and led the Subnational Pro-Gestão Program, a US$1 billion credit line to improve fiscal and public financial management across Brazil. Daniel led the development of DeCODE, an evidence-based system that leverages data to help anticipate and solve delivery challenges, and the Governance Risk Assessment System that uses artificial intelligence for extracting 200+ firm-level and agency-level corruption risk red-flags.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Daniel  was an advisor to the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, a consultant to the Inter-American Bank, as well as the Ministry of Labor and the United States Agency for International Development. He has conducted research at Harvard and Sciences-Po universities. Daniel graduated from El Colegio de México, holds a Master's degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom (Chevening fellow), and holds a PhD in Public Policy and Government from Georgetown University in the United States (Fulbright fellow).

Benjamin A. Olken is the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics at MIT. His research focuses on development economics, with a particular interest in improving the performance of the public sector in developing countries, including social protection programs, taxation, and quality of governance, and on environmental challenges in developing countries.

He is a faculty Director of J-PAL, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, Co-Scientific Director of J-PAL's Southeast Asia office, and Co-Chair of the J-PAL's Social Protection Initiative. He is Editor of American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and co-Director the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Development Economics Program.

Olken received his BA summa cum laude as a double-major in Mathematics and Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2004. In 1997-1998 he was a Henry Luce Scholar, living in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Ouattara Oumar is a Specialist in procurement and financial management of development projects. He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Business Science Institute and the IAE Lyon School of Management at the University Lyon III Jean Moulin. 

After his studies at the Military Preparatory and Technical School (EMPT) of Bingerville, he obtained several university diplomas including the Diploma of Financial and Accounting Studies from INTEC in Paris (France), the Master 2 option Sustainable Development at the UNESCO Chair at Félix-Houphouët Boigny University in Abidjan, the Executive Master in Management of International Organizations (EMMIO) from the SDA Bocconi School of Administration in Milan, Italy. 

He is certified in procurement from Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), as well as in Public Private Partnership. He also holds several certifications in program and project management from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as in “Leadership in Decision Making” from Harvard Business School Executive Education. 

Dr. Ouattara Oumar has nearly 15 years of experience in public procurement and financial management in the private sector and with international institutions, particularly the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme. After an international career at the United Nations where he served as a Financial Management Specialist and President of local Procurement Approval Committees, notably at the UNDP offices in Guinea and the Central African Republic, he has held the position since January 2, 2020. as Chief Executive Officer of the National Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ANRMP) in Côte d'Ivoire.

Harry Anthony Patrinos is the Senior Adviser, Education, at the World Bank. He specializes in the economics of education, especially school-based management, demand-side financing, and public-private partnerships. Previously, he worked in the Office of the Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia. He managed education teams in Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and the Global Unit. He led lending operations and analytical work programs in Latin America. He co-led the development of the Harmonized Learning Outcomes database, part of the Human Capital Index, published in Nature. He has studied and worked extensively on the socioeconomic status of Indigenous Peoples. He has many publications in the academic and policy literature, with more than 50 journal articles. He previously worked as an economist at the Economic Council of Canada. Mr. Patrinos received a doctorate from the University of Sussex.

David Gómez-Álvarez Pérez is the executive director of Transversal Mexico and a member of the Social Participation Committee of the State Anticorruption System of the State of Jalisco. 

David Gómez-Álvarez Pérez is a specialist in politics and public management with over 25 years of professional experience. He holds a postdoctoral degree in development planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a doctorate in public administration from New York University (NYU), a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a bachelor's degree in politics and public administration from El Colegio de México (Colmex).

Throughout his career, Gómez-Álvarez has served as a consultant for various international organizations, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and UN Habitat. He has held several high-level positions in the public sector and has been actively involved in multiple civil society initiatives.

Since 1998, he has been a university research professor. Currently, he is affiliated with the Institute for Accountability and Combating Corruption Research at the University of Guadalajara and is recognized as a Researcher of the National System of Level I Researchers.

Daniela Patiño Piñeros is currently serving as the Programme Lead for Public Resources at Transparency International since February 2023, Daniela. Prior to her current role, Daniela served as the Programme Coordinator for Latin America and Strategic Partners at the Water Integrity Network from July 2020 to February 2023. Before her tenure at the Water Integrity Network, Daniela held positions at the UN Global Compact Colombia, where she focused on fostering public-private partnerships and initiatives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and combat corruption. Daniela’s commitment to corporate sustainability and responsibility is further evidenced by her previous roles, including her work as a Project Coordinator at CREO, Responsibility and Organizational Ethics Builders, where she provided consultancy services to companies on sustainability and stakeholder engagement. Daniela holds a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School in Berlin, with a focus on policy analysis of corruption and development policies. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Relations from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Maria Poli is a Public Governance and Technology specialist currently leading work on multi-stakeholder coalitions and GovTech initiatives, at the Coalitions for Reforms (C4R) Global Program (World Bank’s Governance Global Practice, Public Administration Unit). She has contributed to multiple World Bank analytical and operational initiatives aimed at supporting collaborative governance between governments and civil society groups in Africa, East and South Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Outside of the World Bank, Maria headed Instagram’s Global Policy Stakeholder Engagement strategy, and worked with governments and civil society organizations in Argentina and the Latin America region.  

Maria is a Fulbright fellow, and Board member, Accountability Lab. She has a master’s in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, a graduate degree in civil society studies (Di Tella and San Andres Universities, joint program), and a BS in international relations (Universidad del Salvador, Argentina). 

Mr. Dino Poonsamy is currently the head of strategy and systems at the National School of Government. His portfolio includes strategic planning and organizational performance management, organizational design, transformation and effectiveness, as well as digital transformation.  

Mr. Poonsamy leads the portfolio for international and continental relations as well as partnerships. Under his leadership, several partnerships have been negotiated and concluded, which have provided training opportunities to public servants. He serves as the secretariat to the African Management Development Institutes’ Network (AMDIN), which is a continental capacity building structure.  

He has been instrumental in the development of South Africa's national professionalization framework and is currently working on the future positioning of the National School of Government.  Mr. Poonsamy has presented papers in the field of public administration at international forums. 

Mr. Poonsamy has more than 33 years of public service experience, of which more than 20 years is as a senior manager. He holds a Masters in Management in the field of public management and development, as well as recent studies with INSEAD (Innovation in the Age of Disruption) and London School of Economics (Public Policy Analysis). 

Eng. Wedad K. Qutishat, Director of the Project Management & Implementation Office (PMIO) in the Prime Ministry of Jordan, responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Public Sector Modernization (PSM) Executive program (2023-2025). With over 20 years of experience in organizational development, capacity building, and project management, she has driven significant improvements across the public sector in many countries including Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Eng. Qutishat's expertise includes Total Quality Management (TQM) principles and excellence models. She is a certified Excellence Models Assessor and Trainer and a Certified Effective Governance Lead Auditor (BSI13500). She is also a key founder of the King Abdullah II Award for Excellence and a key expert in national and regional excellence programs.

As a consultant, assessor, trainer, and coach, Eng. Qutishat has contributed to projects for leading international organizations like the World Bank, UNDP, GIZ, USAID, UNICEF, UNFPA, and the European Union. She helped establishing the Results-Oriented Government (ROG) in Jordan with key projects included restructuring public institutions, developing strategic frameworks, Performance Management, Human Resources Management, and Service Delivery Improvement.

Roya Rahmani is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. She has over twenty years of experience working with governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector. She also currently serves as a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Global Institute for Women Peace and Security, and as the chair of Delphos International LTD, a global financial advisory firm based in Washington, DC.

Roya Rahmani was the first woman to serve as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States and held the role from 2018 to 2021. She was also the first woman to serve as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Indonesia, serving from 2016 to 2018.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from McGill University and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University.

Martin Raiser is the World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia. He manages Bank relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and oversees a portfolio of projects, technical assistance and financial resources worth almost US$55 billion.

Before joining the region, Mr. Raiser was the World Bank’s Country Director for China and Mongolia, and Director for Korea. Mr. Raiser has also held positions as the Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Country Director for Turkey, Country Director for Brazil and Country Manager for Uzbekistan.

Mr. Raiser holds a doctorate degree in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Kiel, Germany, and degrees in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Before joining the World Bank in 2003, Mr. Raiser worked for the Kiel Institute of World Economics and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he was Director of Country Strategy and Editor of the Transition Report.

Rita Ramalho is a Lead Economist in the Public Institutions Data and Analytics Unit of the Governance Global Practice. The Public Institutions Unit focuses on data on government and governance patterns in developing countries to serve a wide range of users and supports a repository of key global, regional, and country analytical studies. Previously she was a Lead Economist in the World Bank Chief Economist's Office where she researched the links between sovereign debt and private sector development, in particular the importance of domestic arrears for firms. She was part of the 2022 World Development Report team on Finance for Equitable Recovery. Previously she led the Global Indicators Group which housed data products such as Enterprise Surveys, Women Business and the Law, Enabling the Business of Agriculture, as well as other indicator projects. Prior to that she was the program manager of different units in that department including Enterprise Surveys and Women, Business and the Law. 

Rita Ramalho holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the impact of regulation on economic variables such as growth, where she found that better business regulations can lead to more growth; the impact of regulations on female labor force participation, tax policy and entrepreneurship, labor regulations, and the size of the informal sector. She speaks Portuguese and is conversant in Spanish.

Francesca Recanatini is a Lead Economist at the World Bank and has worked on institution building and corruption for more than two decades.  Throughout her career, she has focused on integrating issues of governance, corruption and institution building in development policies.  She joined the World Bank in 1998 and has worked in several countries in Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to support the design and implementation of governance reforms through in-depth data collection, coalition building and multisector work.  Currently she works on institution building anticorruption reforms in the Middle East and Latin America, with a particular focus on institutional factors that contribute to instability, conflict and state capture.

She has published several papers on corruption, governance indicators and transigetion, co-authoring the Building for Peace in MENA Report (World Bank, 2020), contributing to the Oxford Handbook on Quality of Government (Marcia Grimes and Bo Rothstein, eds. 2020), Anticorruption Policy: Can International Actors Play a Role? (Susan Rose-Ackerman and Paul Carrington, eds. 2013); to the Global Handbook on Research and Practice in Corruption (Adam Graycar, editor, 2012); and to the International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption (Susan Rose-Akerman and Tina Soreide, eds. 2011).  She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Andrew Reiskind is a visionary leader in both data management and privacy.  Andrew serves as the Chief Data Officer for Mastercard, leading the organization’s data strategy and innovation efforts while navigating current and future data risks. He has a strong track record of driving strategic initiatives and fostering a data driven culture within Mastercard. With extensive experience in data strategy, privacy, regulation, and data management Andrew empowers the organization to leverage the company’s global data assets. 

Throughout Andrews career he has demonstrated a passion for leveraging data as a strategic asset to drive business growth and operational excellence. He has a proven ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders all the while earning trust as a thought leader both inside and out of Mastercard. 

Andrews prior roles at Mastercard include Senior Vice President, Data Management in which he was responsible for the quality, collection, and use of data for Mastercard’s information services and advisory business; and Mastercard’s Deputy Chief Privacy Officer in which he was responsible for privacy and data protection issues globally for Mastercard.  Andrew also spent many years as a Privacy & Intellectual Property Council advising direct marketing services, interactive advertising, and industrial chemicals industries.

Andrew holds Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and has his bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware. Andrew is a retired member of the State Bar of New York. 

Daniel Rogger manages DIME's unit on Governance and Institution Building. His areas of interest are political economy, and organizational and public economics. Dan’s research aims to understand how to build organizations that effectively deliver public services. He does large scale surveys and research in collaboration with civil service organizations across the world. Dan did his PhD in economics at University College London (UCL), his Masters in Economics at the University of Cambridge, and his undergraduate degree in economics at UCL. Previously, he has worked as an Economist in the Presidency of Nigeria, an Associate Researcher for the UK's Department for International Development, and as a PhD scholar at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Christian is a Professor in Public Management in the UCL Department of Political Science and serves as the Academic Co-Director of the UCL Policy Lab.

His core research interest lies in data analytics and civil service management, where he utilizes data from original surveys, administrative records, and field experiments to promote evidence-based management of public servants. Christian frequently collaborates with governments and international organizations, including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, in this research, leading to significant changes and improvements in management practices within government organizations.

His work has been extensively published, with over 70 publications in esteemed journals such as the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Governance, among others. Christian's research has received over £1.5m in grant funding from research funding bodies and international organizations. Notably, he was awarded the 2018 Haldane Prize for the best article published in Public Administration. Christian's latest books include "The Government Analytics Handbook: Leveraging Data to Strengthen Public Administration" (World Bank 2023, co-edited with Dan Rogger) and "Motivating Public Employees" (Cambridge University Press 2019, co-authored with Marc Esteve).

Prior to his current position, Christian held roles such as Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in the UCL Department of Political Science, Visiting Scholar at Sciences Po, and LSE Fellow in Political Science and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He also served as a Visiting Research Scholar in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and worked as an Economist with the World Bank. Christian earned his PhD in Government from LSE.

Robyn Scott is an entrepreneur and author. She is co-founder and CEO of Apolitical, a global learning platform for government. She previously co-founded OneLeap, an executive education company, and several Southern African social enterprises teaching coding and other income generation skills to vulnerable women, youth, and prisoners.  

Her first book, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, is an acclaimed memoir about growing up in Botswana against the AIDS epidemic. Robyn is an ambassador for the Access to Medicines Index and on the advisory board of the Responsible Mining Index. She has been named one of WIRED's 50 People About to Change the World and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.  

Her work and writing has been featured in the Financial Times, the BBC, Forbes, WIRED, and Fast Company. She is a frequent speaker, including on the BBC, at Davos, and for TEDx. She is an investor in and advisor to several mission-driven technology startups. 

Robyn now lives in London but grew up in Botswana and New Zealand where she was homeschooled. She has a BSc in Bioinformatics from Auckland University and an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from Cambridge University, where she was a Gates Scholar.  

Fabian Seiderer is the Practice Manager for Governance, Public Sector and Financial Management in the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank.

Fabian, a German national, joined the Bank in 2010 as a Senior Public Sector Specialist in the Middle East and North Africa Region. He has since held various positions in Washington and in the field, including Lead Public Sector Specialist for the South Asia region, based in Sri Lanka and Lead Public Sector Specialist for the East Asia and Pacific region, based in Thailand. In these capacities, he has led policy dialogues, teams and programs in middle income countries on a broad range of Governance issues, including tax reforms, public financial management, performance budgeting reforms, state-owned enterprises reforms, public sector reforms and public investment management. He has led regional and global communities of practices in public financial and public investment management. He has a graduate degree in economics and finance at the Sorbonne University in Paris and completed a Master in Development Economics in Paris and Master in European Integration in Bonn, Germany.

Roby Senderowitsch currently serves as the Practice Manager for Public Administration, Governance Global Practice at the World Bank. Previously, he has held various positions, including Practice Manager, Governance Global Practice, Europe and Central Asia (West); Manager for Leadership, Learning & Innovation; Manager of the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA); and Country Manager in the Dominican Republic. 

His work includes a strong focus on political economy analysis, building coalitions for change, anti-corruption, and performance-based management of public institutions. He has been a lecturer in Human Resource management in nonprofit organizations, as well as director of educational programs and community development and HR management in the private sector. Roby’s publications include “Building Effective, Accountable, and Inclusive Institutions in Europe and Central Asia,” “Democratic Governance in Mexico: Beyond State Capture and Social Polarization” (with Yasuhiko Matsuda), “Performance Informed Budgeting and Trust in Government” (with Nick Manning and others), and “From the International Financial Crisis to Inclusive Growth in the Dominican Republic.” Senderowitsch holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Buenos Aires and a Masters in Policy Studies, Public Administration/Nonprofit Management from the Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. She has been working in this field for over 40 years and is respected nationally and internationally for her research on municipal finance and governance.

Enid consults on municipal finance and governance issues with governments and international agencies such as the World Bank, IMF, UN Habitat, Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Growth Centre (at Oxford and LSE). She has consulted in Canada as well as Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. She has advised on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, the division of expenditures and revenues among levels of government, metropolitan governance, municipal boundary restructuring, and other local finance and governance issues.

Enid was appointed Special Advisor to the Greater Toronto Area Task Force in 1995, a member of the Who Does What Panel in Ontario in 1996, Co-Chair of the Learning Opportunities Grant Panel in 1997, Special Advisor to the Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness in 1998, a member of the City of Toronto's Business Reference Group on tax policy in 1999, a member of the Working Group of the Toronto City Summit Alliance in 2003, and a Commissioner on the Property Tax Policy Review Commission for the City of Vancouver in 2006-07 and again in 2013-14. In 2009-10, she chaired the Municipal Port Property Taxation Fairness Commission in Metro Vancouver, and chaired the Intergovernmental Committee on Economic and Labour Force Development (ICE) from 2000 to 2014. She was a member of the Premier’s Community Hubs Framework Advisory Group in 2016-18. Enid is currently a commissioner on the Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Commission and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Property Tax Institute.

Enid received her B.A. in Economics from York University (Glendon College), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Toronto. In 2012, she received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.

As a General Coordinator of Data Science at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP), Pedro brings a wealth of expertise and dedication to his role. Holding a Master's degree from the Institute of Political Science (IPol) at the University of Brasília (UnB), he is deeply rooted in the field of social sciences. Pedro is a proud member of the career of Technical Analyst of Social Policies (ATPS), showcasing his commitment to advancing societal well-being through data-driven insights.

Since joining ENAP in 2018, Pedro has played a pivotal role in shaping the data science landscape at the institution. He has been instrumental in structuring and leading the development of various groundbreaking products, including InfoGOV, RegBR, BORA, and the Remote Research Environment. His strategic coordination and hands-on approach have been essential in driving innovation and excellence within the data science domain at ENAP.

Višnja Tafra is a Director at the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration in the Government of Croatia. Prior to this role, she served as the General Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration in Croatia, where she played a pivotal role in overseeing administrative functions and policy implementation.

Prior to her tenure at the Ministry of Public Administration, Višnja Tafra held key positions within the Ministry of Defence. From 2016 to 2017, she served as the Head of Sector for Real Estate, Construction, and Environmental Protection, demonstrating her expertise in managing complex defense-related projects. Notably, she also served as the Deputy Minister of Defence from 2012 to 2015, contributing significantly to the development and improvement of Croatia's Armed Forces.

Višnja Tafra's dedication to public service and defense affairs is evident throughout her extensive career. She has held various positions of responsibility, including Head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Defence and Defence Adviser to the President of Croatia. Her contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards such as the Homeland War Memorial Medal and the Order of Duke Branimir.

Višnja Tafra embarked on her professional journey after earning a graduate degree in law from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb in 1985. She began her career by passing the Civil Service Exam in 1986, setting the stage for her subsequent achievements. Her educational foundation also includes secondary vocational education in Croatia and primary schooling in Grubišno Polje.

Throughout her career, Višnja Tafra has demonstrated a keen understanding of legal frameworks, public administration, and defense policies. She has actively contributed to drafting crucial legislation and has been instrumental in shaping policies that impact civil service, defense, and governance in Croatia. As she continues to make significant contributions to her country, Višnja Tafra remains a respected figure in both legal and governmental circles.

Tashi is the 3rd Auditor General of the Royal Audit Authority (RAA) appointed by His Majesty the King under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan on 14 October 2020. The Auditor General of the Royal Audit Authority is appointed by the Druk Gyalpo from a list of eminent persons recommended jointly by the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of Bhutan, the Speaker, the Chairperson of the National Council and the Leader of the Opposition Party.

Prior to his appointment as the Auditor General, Tashi has served with the His Majesty’s Secretariat as Zimpon Wom (Deputy Chamberlain to His Majesty the King of Bhutan) from July 2009 till October 2020. Specifically, Tashi was looking after the Queen’s Project Office of Her Majesty the Gyaltsuen.  

Tashi graduated from Sherubtse College, Kanglung, Trashigang in 1993 with Bachelors of Commerce degree and has joined the civil service on 01 July 1994 as a Trainee Officer in the RAA. While in RAA, he has held various significant posts, as the Chiefs of Human Resource Division, Performance & System Audit Division & the Thematic Audit Division. Tashi was instrumental in setting up the foundations for conducting Performance Audits in the RAA including Environmental and IT Audits.

Tashi has pursued further studies and obtained an Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting (1999) from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in London. He is also the first Bhutanese to be certified as an INTOSAI/IDI Training Specialist, which had paved the way for many other auditors to make their mark and contribute to the international audit community. Accountants in London. He is also the first Bhutanese to be certified as an INTOSAI/IDI Training Specialist, which had paved the way for many other auditors to make their mark and contribute to the international audit community.

Currently serving as the Federal Civil Service Commissioner, H.E. Dr. Mekuria Haile is a respected figure in Ethiopia's public service domain, notably recognized for his contributions to urban development, housing, and governance.

Throughout his career, Dr. Mekuria has displayed commendable leadership and expertise in various facets of public administration. Serving as the Bureau Head for Trade, Industry, and Urban Development in the Southern Regional Government, he facilitated economic growth and development initiatives. As Chief Executive Officer of Addis Ababa's Municipality services, he oversaw significant improvements in urban infrastructure and service delivery. Subsequently, his tenure as Minister for Urban Development, Housing, and Construction reflected his commitment to enhancing Ethiopia's urban landscape over six transformative years.

In addition to his ministerial roles, Dr. Mekuria has contributed as a Minister Rank Advisor on Urban and Housing Affairs for the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. His dedication to national development and governance is evident throughout his career. Dr. Mekuria Haile's contributions have left a lasting impact on Ethiopia's public service sector, demonstrating his commitment to advancing the nation's socio-economic development.

Dr. Mekuria's academic journey began with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Addis Ababa University, followed by advanced degrees from prestigious institutions in Ireland, and a PhD in Information & Telecommunications Technology Management from KAIST.

Axel is the World Bank’s Senior Managing Director (SMD), responsible for Development Policy and Partnerships. A Dutch-Austrian national, he directs the World Bank’s core development work captured by the Bank’s Global Practice groups – including equitable growth, finance and institutions; human development; infrastructure; and sustainable development – and ensures its integration into operations, with a special focus on climate change, fragility, human capital, and debt sustainability issues.

He currently co-leads the Evolution Roadmap aimed at increasing the scale and impact of the World Bank operations and systematically incorporating sustainability, resilience and inclusion into the Bank’s work on poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity. This reform effort seeks to solidify the World Bank’s critical role as the knowledge bank on development and expand its engagement on global challenges such as climate change, fragility and health, as well as to increase mobilization and facilitation of private capital together with the private sector arms of the World Bank Group.

He oversees the Bank’s numerous partnerships including with the UN, international financial institutions (IFIs), and bilateral partners.  In addition, van Trotsenburg co-chairs the replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) and represents the Bank in the G7 and G20 meetings.  He leads the Bank’s climate engagement in the context of the annual COP convenings.

As SMD, he is focused on mobilizing knowledge, talent, partnerships and communications to enhance the Bank’s impact globally and in the client countries it serves.

Saleiman Sheikh Umar leads fiscal reforms, debt relief success, and effective public financial management as the Director General, Ministry of Finance, Somalia.

Professor of the Master's Degrees in Economics and Regulation, Management and Mining Economics at the PUCP (2002-). Member of the Specialized Chamber for the Elimination of Bureaucratic Barriers of the Court for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property of Indecopi (2018-). Executive Vice President de Guía Consulting (2017- ). Deputy Superintendent of Insurance and Senior Management Advisor at the Superintendence of Banking, Insurance and Private Pension Fund Administrators (2002-2016). Head of the Economic Studies Area, President and member of the Libre Commissions Competition and Consumer Protection of Indecopi (1995-2000). Member of the Board of Directors of OSIPTEL (1999-2000) and OSITRAN (2001-2002).   

Kim is an experienced Research Psychologist with a strong background in both private and public sectors. With expertise in Quantitative and Qualitative Research, Program Evaluation, and Organizational Change and Development, Kim brings valuable skills to the table. 

Currently serving as a Managing Research Psychologist in Survey Analysis at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Kim has been contributing to impactful research for over eight years. Based in the Washington D.C. Metro Area, Kim's core research product is the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, where she plays a pivotal role in gathering and analyzing data to inform organizational strategies and policies.

Roland White, a South African national, is the World Bank Global Lead: City Management, Governance and Finance. 

With an international career stretching over 30 years across private, public and multilateral development bank sectors he has led major urban analytic, policy advisory and investment operations in multiple countries across several world regions. He has also led a number of global engagements in the city finance space, including serving as co-lead of the Municipal Finance Policy Group for the Habitat III 20-year “New Urban Agenda” conference held in Quito in 2016.

Martin J Williams is an Associate Professor in Public Management at the Blavatnik School of Government, and Research Fellow at Green Templeton College.

Martin's research is on policy implementation, public service delivery, and bureaucratic reform, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. He also teaches and conducts research on the roles of evidence, context and external validity in policymaking.

Martin is an academic co-director of the People in Government Lab and co-research director of the Deliver Ed (delivering education reforms) project. He co-convenes the Master of Public Policy core course on Evidence and Public Policy.

Prior to joining Oxford University, Martin was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, University College London, and completed his PhD in the Government Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He previously worked as an economist in Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow, and was a Senior Researcher at the Economic Policy Research Institute in Cape Town. He also holds MSc degrees in African Studies and Economics for Development from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Economics from Williams College.

Serdar Yilmaz is the Practice Manager for the Public Finance and Procurement Unit at the World Bank. He has broad experience in the related areas of fiscal decentralization, public expenditure management, subnational governance, and governmental accountability. Throughout his twenty-year five tenure at the World Bank, he has provided technical assistance and contributed to policy reforms in low and middle-income countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and East Asia regions. In addition to his task management responsibilities, Serdar makes original contributions to the literature. Serdar holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University. 

Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission of India, is renowned for his extensive experience across multiple sectors. During a thirty-four year career at McKinsey & Co., he served as Chairman in India, led the Washington office, and played a pivotal role in establishing the Minneapolis office. Zainulbhai's expertise extends across telecommunications, consumer electronics, energy, banking, infrastructure, and healthcare.

Zainulbhai has made significant contributions to enhancing quality and efficiency in governance. During his tenure as Chairman of the Quality Council of India (QCI) from 2014 to 2022, he collaborated closely with governmental leaders to drive process transformation and improve the efficacy of public programs and initiatives. This experience underscores his commitment to driving positive change at both corporate and governmental levels.

Zainulbhai's academic background includes an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Laura is a Senior Economist at the Governance Global Practice within the Public Institutions and Data Analytics unit. Among others, she leads projects focusing on the development and application of data-driven institutional assessments. Prior to this role, Laura was a Senior Economist at the Governance Global Practice for the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Laura joined the Bank in 2011 as a Young Professional and since then has led several lending, analytical and TA projects involving the implementation and evaluation of a variety of public sector reforms in high-middle and low income countries. Laura has a B.A and Ph.D in Economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, and a B.A from PUC-Rio, Brazil (Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro).

Mr. Godefroid Misenga Milabyo, an economist and public finance expert, has been Executive Secretary of the Steering Committee for Public Finance Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo (COREF) which is a public institution, since March 2023; he previously served as National Coordinator of the same institution from January 2011, when it was still a department of the Ministry of Finance.

As of January 2022, he is also the National Coordinator for the Improvement of Revenue Collection and Expenditure Management Project, known by its French abbreviation as PROJET ENCORE, which is funded by the World Bank. From 2014 to 2021, he led the Strengthening Public Finance Management and Accountability Project (PROFIT-CONGO), also under the aegis of the World Bank.

He has been a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Budget for the past 25 years.