About

A Mauritanian national, Ousmane Diagana joined the Bank in 1992 as operations officer at Cotonou Office (Benin). Until 2000, he worked and managed technical teams of the World Bank in several countries including Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. In October 2000, he worked in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA), where he served successively as Senior Specialist in the Education Sector and Sector Leader and finally Program Coordinator of Human Development with residence in Rabat, Morocco. In MENA, Diagana contributed significantly to advancing the reform and development of the education sector through innovative programs that he initiated and followed especially in Morocco, Yemen and Djibouti.

In October 2006, Diagana was appointed as Country Manager of the World Bank in Niger, a position he left for Mali in 2009. He was appointed Country Director for Chad, Guinea, Mali and Niger in May 2011 with residence in Mali. Ousmane broad responsibilities include leading policies and sector dialogue with his client’s countries for strategies formulation and implementation, generating business, fostering partnership, engaging with various stakeholders and effectively managing Bank resources. He is also responsible for operations and for economic and sector work across the four countries, and oversees a project portfolio of over US$3 billion commitment conceived to support countries sustainable and accelerated growth for poverty reduction and development.

Diagana holds a post-graduate degree in finance and taxation from the National School of Administration in Dakar. He also holds a Master of Science degree in economics from Dakar University, with specialization in planning, economic analysis and development. His academic background was strengthened by number of professional development training in area of Human Development sector--education in particular--notably at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex in the United Kingdom and at Harvard in the United States.

In April 2009, Diagana received the Best Manager Award of the World Bank Group from the World Bank President.