Washington, DC - Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo has been appointed as Disability Advisor in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience (GP SURR) Global Practice of the World Bank Group.
Her appointment comes at a time when the World Bank Group is working to mainstream disability in development under its twin goals to end poverty and promote shared prosperity.
As Disability Advisor, Ms. McClain-Nhlapo will focus on working with and supporting operational teams across the institution to ensure that Bank policies, programs and projects take people with disabilities into consideration. Her responsibilities include: leading the production of analytical products; analyzing and articulating Bank policy on disability and development, and the role that the Bank should play; establishing criteria and an operational results framework for monitoring the outcomes of the Bank's disability work.
As a well-respected human rights lawyer in disability and child rights, Ms. McClain-Nhlapo currently serves as USAID’s coordinator for disability and inclusive development, appointed by U.S. President Barak Obama in 2011 to lead the government’s efforts in disability inclusive development, from developing policies and country strategies to technical assistance for program implementation.
Prior to this, she worked as a senior operations officer at the Bank to integrate disability inclusive development into operations in the East Asia Pacific and Africa regions.
Earlier in her career, she was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to the South African Human Rights Commission focusing on social and economic rights, disability rights and child rights. From 1996 to 1998, she also served as a project officer on child protection for UNICEF.
She holds a Master’s Degree in international law and administration from the University of Warsaw, Poland, and an LLM from Cornell Law School.
Ms. McClain-Nhlapo was selected to this position through a competitive process, and her appointment is effective December 19, 2014.
