Sarah Michael was appointed Country Manager for Azerbaijan in July 2020.

Sarah has over 20 years of experience in sustainable development, with a focus on social inclusion, community-driven development, peace and tolerance building, social service delivery, livelihoods, health, and youth development. She has led innovative work on social inclusion and on peacebuilding with a focus on the Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Africa regions, and has previously served as a World Bank Program Leader in the South Caucasus, supporting the Bank’s engagement and dialogue with authorities around Sustainable Development and Infrastructure.

Before joining the World Bank, Sarah worked on the international Commission on Human Security and on a variety of development and security initiatives at the Global Equity Initiative, a research and policy institute at Harvard University. Her first book, Undermining Development: The Absence of Power among Local NGOs in Africa, was published in 2004.

Sarah holds MPhil and PhD degrees from Cambridge University, UK and a Bachelor’s degree from Queens University in Canada.