Biographies of Speakers - Regional Workshop Program-For-Results Financing
Biographies of Speakers - Regional Workshop Program-for-Results Financing
Bella Bird, Tanzania Country Director, World Bank
Ms. Bella Bird, a British and Australian national, is the Country Director for Tanzania, Burundi, Malawi and Somalia based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Prior to taking up this role this role, Bella held the position of World Bank Country Director for Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, based in Nairobi, Kenya from 2011 to 2015. Before joining the Bank in 2011, Bella served in various leadership positions in the UK Department for International Development (DFID). From 2009 – 2011, she was Head of Governance Policy in DFID. She provided leadership to a number of international policy processes at the OECD, as well as leading policy development on governance and fragile states policy within DFID. Bella served as the Head of DFID Nepal after a similar stint as Head of DFID Vietnam. Prior to that, she spent seven years with DFID as an adviser on poverty and social issues in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. She has played a leadership role for the UK government and internationally on policies to promote state-building and peace building, championing aid effectiveness and south-south collaboration.
Bella has proven ability to establish credible and effective partnerships with diverse stakeholders. She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Hassan Zaman, Director of OPSPQ, World Bank
Hassan Zaman is currently Director, Operations Policy and Quality in OPCS. He joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1998 followed by country economist positions in Africa and South Asia and Lead Economist in the central Poverty Reduction group. Between 2011 and 2014 he was the Chief Economist and Senior Adviser to the Governor at the Central Bank in Bangladesh. Prior to joining the World Bank, Hassan worked for BRAC in Bangladesh for three years. Hassan has a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex and an MSc and BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
MelakuKifle, Director, Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, Ethiopia
MelakuKifle is a qualified Program/Project Management and Public Finance Specialist with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics. His career spans over three decades with extensive professional work experience in the areas of: Program/Project Management, public finance, development planning, budgeting, public investment, policy analysis, expenditure management & control, with direct supervisory responsibilities for technical and administrative staff.
Kenneth Mugambe, Director, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Mr. Kenneth Mugambe has 14 years working experience in planning, public expenditure management, public sector budgeting, macroeconomic management and public administration. He has worked as Principal Economist responsible for the Budget Execution and Evaluation Section of the Budget Policy and Evaluation Department in the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development. He was a member of a Task Force that developed the export competitiveness strategy for Uganda. Mr. Mugambe is Director Budget at Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
Kennedy Nyachiro, Chief Economist, The National Treasury, Kenya
Mr. Kennedy NyakundiNyachiro, is a Chief Economist/World Bank Division/Policy Unit at The National Treasury, Public Debt Management Directorate, Resources Mobilization Department. He has over 20 years' experience in Strategic Planning, management of rural development work as well as preparation of National Development Plans, District Development Plans, budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation of development projects. He also headed UN Division where he implemented projects that create impact to the communities.
Gayle Martin, Program Leader, Tanzania, World Bank
GAYLE MARTIN is a development economist at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1997, she has worked in East and Southern Africa, South Asia as well as East Asia. She is the Program Leader for human development and agriculture covering Tanzania, Burundi, Malawi, and Somalia. She led the Service Delivery Indicators Program and prior to that worked at the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group. Her research interests include public economics, impact evaluation, and the economics of service delivery. She holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University.
TiumzghyBerhe, Acting Director, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, Ethiopia
Mr. Berhe was graduate of Master of art of Urban management (specialization with financing infrastructure and management ) Bachelor of Accounting, Diploma in Banking and Finance as well as Post graduate diploma in finance specialization in Netherlands. Currently he is working on the Ministry of Urban development and Housing as Head of project management and acting bureau head of urban good governance and capacity building
Martin GogaAnyango, Acting Director, Devolution, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Kenya
Mr. Anyango has 26 years of experience in the Governance and financial management of in Local government sector including support to reforms aimed at improving Good governance service delivery, and institutional strengthening, in Kenya. He was the coordinator of Kenya Local Government reforms program whose input contributed to the provisions in the Constitution of Kenya 2010. He has worked in collaboration with sub-national governments in identifying and addressing institutional gaps and practices in the former Local Authorities.He was part of the team implementing defunct Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF), Local Authority Service delivery Action plans(LASDAP). Mr. Anyango currently serves as the Ag. Director Capacity Building and Technical Assistance in the Ministry of Devolution and Planning dealing mainly with capacity building support to County Governments in Kenya,and currently the coordinator for Kenya Devolution PforR.
Jacques SosthèneDingara, Permeant secretary of administrative reform, Ministry of Civil Service, Burkina Faso
Mr. Dingara is a Director of Financial Services, holder of a Postgraduate Diploma [Diplômed'étudesapprofondies DEA] in Public Economics and am an expert on issues related to governance and institutional reform. He held the following positions listed in chronological order: Head of the Finance Department in the Office of the Prime Minister, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer of FEER, and Director of Studies and Planning at the Ministry of the Public Service. He is currently employed as the Permanent Secretary of Public Sector Modernization and Good Governance in Burkina Faso, and serve as the coordinator of the Public Sector Modernization Project (PSMP) in Burkina Faso.
Gandham Ramana, Program Leader, World Bank
Ramana is a medical doctor with specialization in Public Health and has been with the Bank for nearly two decades. He has led design and implementation of complex projects in health including the first PforR operation in Ethiopia. He is currently working as one of the program Leaders for Kenya Country Management Unit. He has worked in Africa and South Asia regions of the Bank and also published extensively on health systems and maternal health.
MekdimEnkossa, Adviser, Ethiopian Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
Dr. MekdimEnkossa is currently serving as senior technical assistant to the Federal Ministry of Health, resource mobilization directorate. Dr. Mekdim has been working as technical assistant to the ministry of health since 2007. She has worked in various positions such as supporting the Policy Plan and Finance General Directorate, in planning, implementation of programs and donor coordination
Octave Semwaga, Ministry of Agriculture, Rwanda
Dr. Octave Semwaga has a PhD in Agricultural Management, a Masters Degree in Strategic Marketing, a Masters Degree in Banking and Finance, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Integrated Planning and a Bachelors Degree in Agronomy. Currently he is the Director General of Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources and the manager of the Program for Results for the agricultural sector in his home Country Rwanda.
NamawuAloloAlhassan, African Development Bank (AfDB)
Dr.NamawuAlolo has over 12 years of international experience in policy and strategy formulation, operations, research and training in governance, poverty reduction and gender empowerment. Dr.Alolo worked as a Research Associate for the University of Birmingham and acted as an adviser on anti-corruption initiatives for Transparency International and the International Council on Human Rights Policy. Dr.Alolo has been with the African Development Bank since 2007 where she worked in various capacities; a socio-economist in the Human Development Department, an Economist in the Nigeria Field office, a socio-Economist in the African Water Facility and currently as a Principal Strategy Officer at the Strategy and Policies Department.
Ian Attfield, Department for International Development (DFID)
Ian Attfield has worked extensively on education development initiatives in Africa and Asia, with a focus on Education Management, Planning and Information systems. He is currently DFID’s senior education adviser in Tanzania. He has been the Tanzania in-country lead adviser for the $250m Big Results Now in Education PforR, financed by the World Bank, DFID and Sweden since its design in 2013/14.
David Webber, Advisor, World Bank
David Webber was part of the team that designed the PforR instrument with a focus on the guidance for Disbursement Linked Indicators and funds flow. He has been closely involved in supporting many of the PforR operations which have been prepared in all regions. His experience with the Bank includes several years working on projects in West Africa including some the first Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAps). He was also part of the team which developed and negotiated the World Bank and United Nations Fiduciary Principles Accord for Crisis and Emergency Situations and has worked on several fragile state operations.
Imad Saleh, Operations Advisor, World Bank
Imad Saleh is currently Operations advisor in OPCS. He is currently the Program for Results team leader. He joined the Bank in 2000 and worked in Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Latin America and is currently based In Washington. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked in the public and private sector in Lebanon. Imad has a BSc in Civil engineering and MSc in Business Administration.
RajatNarula, Lead Financial Management Specialist, World Bank
RajatNarula works as a Lead Financial Management Specialist in Operation Policy and Country Services Department of World Bank.Rajat has worked with the Bank for over eighteen years in South Asia Region, Controllers and East Asia and Pacific region. He is a chartered accountant and a certified internal auditor.He works on fiduciary aspects of PforR operations.
AlegeAbolajiAtolagbe-Suleiman
Mr. Suleiman the Honorable Comissioner for Health kwara state and a former commissioner for commerce and cooperarivesalso a former membergoverningcouncilkwara state polythecnic Ilorin and a former staff of federalministry of health HQ Abuja.
Christopher Finch
Christopher Finch has more than 20 years of development experience in Asia and Africa. For the past five years in Kenya, Chris led a cross-sector Bank program supporting Kenya’s ambitious decentralization process. This program helps national and county governments navigate the rapid establishment of 47 new county governments and build capacity for devolved PFM, public administration and citizen engagement through analytical & technical assistance, and projects. Chris led preparation of new and recently approved $200 million Program-for-Results operation, and he led mobilization of more than $30 million for a multi-donor Kenya Devolution trust fund. The Kenya devolution support program includes one of the Bank’s most in-depth engagements on citizen engagement – focused on strengthening sub-national government capacity and systems to engage citizens and communities in planning, PFM, and investment management, in response to the strong emphasis on public participation in Kenya’s Constitution and legal framework. He earlier led WB support for launching Kenya’s Open Data Initiative (KODI), one of the first major government open data platforms in sub-Saharan Africa.
Arun R. Joshi
Arun is a Lead Education Specialist in the Education Global Practice at the World Bank. His experience spans policy and program development in a diverse range of countries in the Middle-East, Africa, and South Asia. Before his current assignment at the World Bank HQ, he was based in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania for 5 years, when he was able to contribute to the design of the government’s Big Results Now in Education program, which is partly financed through a PforR. He has a doctorate in human development from Harvard University.
Gerald GeofreyMweli
Mr. Mweli is the an Acting Director of Policy and Planning at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the United Republic of Tanzania. Policy and Planning department works with a number of development partners to transform education by creating a suitable teaching and learning environment as well as improving the learning outcome through supporting teaching and learning in schools and colleges. Apart from his role in Policy and Planning, Gerald is also the Director of Basic Education Project and Programs Coordination Unit at the Ministry. Prior to leading basic education project and programs, he is National Coordinator of the newly World Bank introduced funding modality known as Program for Results (P4R). Before his current role, Gerald was the National Coordinator of Secondary Education Development Programs Phase II. He is also a Board member of the Tanzania Education Authority (TEA) which is the Government authority which is mandated to raise funds for financing various projects and programs in education sector. He received his Bachelor Degree of Arts in Economics from St Augustine University of Tanzania in 2006. Then in 2013 he received his Msc in Economics and Finance for Development from Bradford University of United Kingdom. Gerald has vast knowledge and experience in project planning and management gained.
Yasser El-Gammal
Mr. El-Gammal, an Egyptian and Canadian national, joined the World Bank in 1996. He has worked in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe and Central Asia, and Africa Regions on human development issues while leading major flagship operations in social protection. 2011-2015 he served as Social Protection and Labor Practice Manager in the Human Development Group in MENA. He served as a member of the World Bank’s Social Safety Net (SSN) Global Expert Team (GET) and has worked extensively on social protection and labor issues in the last 17 years in over 15 countries. Mr El-Gammal’s current assignment is Country Manager in Rwanda.Prior to the World Bank, Mr. El-Gammal worked with an international NGO and with the Social Fund for Development in Egypt. He has aM.Sc degree in National Development and Project Planning from the University of Bradford, the UK.
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