James Adams is Vice President and Network Head, Operations Policy and Country Services, at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1974, he has held a variety of operational positions in East Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Most recently, Mr. Adams served as Country Director for Tanzania and Uganda. He has also served as Director for Operations Policy, and as a Division Chief of several departments. Before joining the Bank, Mr. Adams worked as a loan officer for Merchants Bank, in Syracuse, New York. Mr. Adams studied at Colgate University, and holds an MPA from Princeton University.

Masood Ahmed has worked in international development for 25 years. He was trained at the London School of Economics, where he did his graduate and post-graduate degrees and served on the economics faculty. He then joined the World Bank, where he worked for the first 10 years on country and project operations primarily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and, for a further 10 years, on international economic policy questions relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade and commodities and global economic relations. During his final assignment in the Bank, as Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Mr. Ahmed was the senior manager responsible for the development and operationalization of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach, as well as the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative. He also served concurrently for a year as the Acting Vice President for Private Sector Development and Infrastructure.

In 2000, Mr. Ahmed joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Deputy Director for Policy Development and Review. In this role, he served as the senior staff focal point for taking forward the IMF's work in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) agenda. Since 2003, Mr. Ahmed has served as Director General for Policy and International Development at the Department for International Development (DFID).

Robert J. Anderson is recently retired from the Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1987 he has held various economist positions in South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia (ECA), as a Sector and Senior Manager in the ECA Region, and most recently as a Lead Evaluation Officer in the Country Evaluation and Regional Relations unit of the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank Mr. Anderson was Director of the Office of Economics and Planning, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) El Salvador; Vice President of Mathtech, Inc., in Princeton, New Jersey; and Deputy Chairman for Resources and Environment at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. He has held faculty positions at Purdue University, University of California at Riverside, and Pennsylvania State University. Mr. Anderson studied at Carleton College, and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kemal Ben Rejeb is Director General, Tunisian Ministry of Development and International Cooperation.

Nancy Birdsall is the founding President of the Center for Global Development. Prior to launching the Center, she served for three years as Senior Associate and Director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Birdsall was Executive Vice-President of the Inter-American Development Bank; before that period, she served as Director of the Policy Research Department at the World Bank. (full bio)

François Bourguignon is the Chief Economist and senior Vice-President, Development Economics at the World Bank Group. He is an internationally recognized intellectual leader in the economics of public policy, inequality, economic growth, income distribution and development. He also has had extensive practical experience with the World Bank and its interactions with developing countries and other partners. Mr. Bourguignon was previously Director of the World Bank's Development Research Group, a part of the Development Economics Vice Presidency, and managing editor of the World Bank Economic Review. He has served as an advisor to many developing countries, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations, the European Commission, and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the French Prime Minister. Since 1985, he has been Professor of Economics at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, where he founded and directed the Départment et Laboratoire d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée (DELTA), a research unit in theoretical and applied economics. He has held academic positions with the University of Chile, Santiago, and the University of Toronto. He is also a Fellow of the Econometric Society. Mr. Bourguignon has authored or edited several books, including his most recent, The Impact of Economic Policies on Poverty and Income Distribution - Evaluation Techniques and Tools.

Willem Buiter has been the Chief Economist and Special Adviser to the President at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) since May 2000. Prior to this, he was appointed by the Chancellor the Exchequer in June 1997, to a three-year term as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Professor Buiter was educated at the European School, Brussels, the University of Amsterdam, Cambridge University and Yale University. He has held academic appointments at Princeton University, the University of Bristol, the London School of Economics, Yale University and, from July 1994 until June 2000, the University of Cambridge. He has been a consultant and advisor to the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Communities and a number of national governments and government agencies. He also widely published on subjects such as open economy macroeconomics, monetary and exchange rate theory, fiscal policy, social security, economic development and transition economies.

Otaviano Canuto was elected World Bank Executive Director to Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Philippines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago in January 2004. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Canuto was the Director of International Affairs for the Ministry of Finance, Brazil. Mr. Canuto is a Professor of Economics and has taught at the University of São Paulo (2002-2003), State University of Campinas (1989-2002), and Federal University of Uberlândia (1982-1998). He also served as Executive Secretary for the Brazilian National Association of Centers of Graduate Studies of Economics (2000-2001). Mr. Canuto has been a columnist for the Brazilian newspapers O Estado de São Paulo (1997-2002) and Valor Economico (2000-2002) and has also published numerous articles in Economic journals.

Ajay Chhibber is Director, Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank and was formerly Country Director for Turkey from 1997-2003. He was Staff Director for the World Development Report 1997, The State in a Changing World. Mr. Chhibber has a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He joined the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1983, and has served in a variety of research, policy and operational positions at the World Bank. He has published several books and numerous articles.

Pedro C. Couto is the Director of the Economic Studies Unit in the Ministry Planning and Finance, Mozambique. In this role, he has been the main coordinator and co-author of the Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty 2001-2005 (PARPA)—the Mozambique Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). He is a member of the Mozambique coordination team in national aid harmonization efforts. Mr. Couto monitors the conditionalities with the Bretton-Woods Institutions, contributing for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) completion point, as a well as successful reviews of the Policy Framework Paper (PFP) and Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF). Prior to assuming the role of Director in 1996, Mr. Couto was a part-time lecturer on monetary economics on the Faculty of Economics at the University of Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo; since 2003, he has also been a member of the Council for this university. Mr. Couto was the Economic Advisor to the Prime Minster between 1990 and 1993. Mr. Couto holds a BA, as well as a “Licenciatura” degree in Economics from the University of Eduardo Mondlane – Maputo, Mozambique, and a MPhil in Economic Planning and Postgraduate Diploma in Development Policy from the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Pamela Cox will become the Vice President of the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, on January 1, 2005. From 2000-2004, she was the Director, Strategy and Operations, Office of the Vice President, Africa Region. Prior to that, she was Country Director for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland in the Africa Region, a position she held from 1996-2000. From 1994-1996, she was Chief, Country Operations Division in East Asia, covering Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea. She served as Chief, Agriculture and Environment Operations Division from 1992-1994 in the same region. During her career in the Bank, Ms. Cox has also worked as an economist in South Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Africa. Ms. Cox joined the Bank in 1980 as a Young Professional. Ms Cox holds two masters degrees (Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and Masters of Arts in Development Economics/International Economics) and a Ph.D. in Development Economics and Policy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University.

Kemal Dervis is a Member of the Turkish Parliament from the Republican Peoples Party representing Istanbul. He is also active in the Economics and Foreign Policy Forum, a Turkish NGO working on economic and political issues in particular relating to European enlargement. Mr. Dervis participates in various European and international progressive networks including the Global Progressive Forum, the Progressive Governance Network, the Club "A Gauche en Europe" and the "Reforming Bretton-Woods Committee." He is a member of the Task Force on Global Public Goods co-chaired by Ernesto Zedillo and Tidjane Thiam, and is also a member of the Special Commission on the Balkans chaired by Giuliano Amato.

From March 2001 to August 2002 Kemal Dervis was Minister for Economic Affairs and the Treasury without party affiliation of the Republic of Turkey, responsible for Turkey's recovery program after the devastating financial crisis that hit the country in February 2001. In August of 2002, after the crisis was overcome, he resigned from his Ministerial post and joined the Republican People's Party, getting elected to Parliament in November of 2002. From December 2002 to July 2003, he represented his party and the Turkish Parliament in the Convention on the Future of Europe.

Kemal Dervis joined the World Bank in 1977, where he worked until he returned to Turkey in 2001. At the World Bank he held various positions including Division Chief for Industrial and Trade Strategy and Director for the Central Europe Department after the fall of the Berlin wall. In 1996 he became Vice-President of the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa Region and, in 2000, Vice-President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network. In these positions Mr. Dervis coordinated the World Bank's support to the peace process in the Balkans and the Middle East and he developed the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers initiative launched earlier with the objective of broadening and deepening the reform agenda in the poorest countries with the inclusion of civil society in the policy formulation process. Kemal Dervis earned his bachelor and masters degrees in economics from the London School of Economics and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is widely published, including a book entitled " General Equilibrium Models for Development Policy" which he co-authored with Jaime de Melo and Sherman Robinson was published by Cambridge University Press. Mr. Dervis is currently working on a book on Global Governance in association with the Center for Global Development.

Victoria Elliott has been the manager of corporate evaluations in the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group since 2000. She has been with the World Bank since 1979 and has worked as an economist on agricultural operations in Eastern Africa and China, and health projects in Africa and the Middle East. She has also had institutional assignments involving the replenishment of IDA and the review of country assistance strategies and adjustment operations. She is a graduate of McGill University and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Fareed M. A. Hassan is a Senior Evaluation Officer in the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, where he assessed the effectiveness of Bank programs in Lesotho, Jordan and Tunisia. In his previous position as a Consultant in the operation complex, he worked extensively on Bulgaria and Macedonia. Before joining the Bank, he was a Ford Foundation visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut, and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. His research interests include development economics (in particular, growth, poverty and inequality) and economic policy. His articles have been published in the Journal of International Development, Contemporary Economic Policy, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, and Europe-Asia Studies. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh.

Eveline Herfkens was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, as the Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign in October 2002. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Herfkens served as the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation between 1998 and 2002. During this time, she was also a Member of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Development Committee and a Co-founder of the Utstein-Group. Presently she is a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in February 2002.

Ms. Herfkens served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the Netherlands at the United Nations and other international organizations-including the World Trade Organization (WTO)-in Geneva from 1996 to 1998. She was an Executive Director of the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. between 1990 and 1996. Ms. Herfkens was a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands from 1981 to 1990. She served as Member and Counselor-Treasurer of Parliamentarians for Global Action between 1985 and 1990. She was also a Member of the Economic Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Co-organizer of the North-South Campaign. She was a Policy Officer in the field of development cooperation at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1986 and 1989. Ms. Herfkens has also served on the Council of the Labour Party. She has been Chair of the Evert Vermeer Foundation, Chair of the Dutch Fair Trade Organization and a Member of the Development Committee of the Netherlands Council of Churches. Ms. Herfkens studied Law and Economics at Leiden University.

Dr. Ishrat Husain took charge of the office of the Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, on 2nd December 1999. Since assuming the office of the Governor, he has implemented a major program of restructuring of the State Bank of Pakistan and steered the reforms of the banking sector. He has played a key role, as a member of the economic management team of the Government, in the revival of the economy, for which he was conferred the prestigious award of 'Hilal-e-Imtiaz' by the President of Pakistan in March 2003.

Prior to assuming the office of Governor, State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Husain served the World Bank in various capacities spanning more than 20 years. Among the positions held at the World Bank, Dr. Husain was Country Director for Central Asian Republics; Director, Poverty and Social Policy Department; Chief Economist for Africa; Chief Economist for East Asia and Pacific Region; and Chief of the Debt and International Finance Division, where he helped develop the World Bank's strategic approach to Latin American Debt problems which subsequently resulted in the Bank's participation in the Brady Initiative of Debt Reduction. He also served as World Bank's Resident Representative in Nigeria.

Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Husain was a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan since 1964. He held senior management positions in the Planning and Development Department and the Finance Department of the Government of Sindh. He also served as Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Husain holds a Master's degree in Development Economic from Williams College and Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University. He is a graduate of the Executive Development Program jointly sponsored by Harvard, Stanford and INSEAD. Dr. Husain has maintained an active scholarly interest in Pakistan's economic issues. His most recent book Economic Management in Pakistan 1999-2002 has been published by the Oxford University Press. He is also the author of Pakistan: The Economy of an Elitist State.

Gregory K. Ingram is Director-General Operations Evaluation for the World Bank Group and formerly Director of the Independent Evaluation Group. He was Staff Director for the World Development Report 1994, Infrastructure for Development and was earlier Director of the Development Research Department. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1977, Mr. Ingram was Associate Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He has published in the areas of infrastructure, transportation, housing markets, urban economics, environment, evaluation, and development.

H.E. Donald Kaberuka, a World Bank Governor, was appointed Rwandan Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in October 1997, after having served as Secretary of State in charge of Finance in the same ministry. Prior to this, Mr. Kaberuka was a Chief Economist with the Interafrica Coffee Organization in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and an Investment and Commodity Analyst with Morgan Grenfell and Rayners International. He has also worked in banking, trade and commodity finance and briefly in academia. Mr. Kaberuka holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Tony Killick is Senior Research Associate of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, and consultant on development policy issues. He was Director of ODI in 1982-1987, Senior Research Fellow there in 1987-1999, Visiting Professor of the University of Surrey, 1988-2003 and President of the Development Studies Association in 1986-1988. His principal work has been in the areas of economic policies in developing countries, and in the ways in which the policies of international agencies impinge upon developing countries. Professor Killick has a special interest in the economies of Africa, and in the study of poverty. He has taught at the Universities of Ghana and Nairobi. He has acted as a consultant to a wide variety of national governments and international agencies. Professor Killick's books include studies of the economies of Ghana and Kenya; two studies of the policies of the IMF; an 'informal textbook' on adjustment policies in low-income countries; a study of the flexibility of national economies; and a study of the use by international and other aid donor agencies of policy conditionality as a means of achieving improved economic policies. Much of his recent work has been on political-economy aspects of aid delivery and aid relationships.

Danny Leipziger will become the Vice President and Head of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network on October 15, 2004. Currently, he is the Director, Finance, Infrastructure and Private Sector Group, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, World Bank, currently managing more than 100 professionals providing technical services to the Region in areas of finance, transport, water, urban, energy and regulation. Before this, he was Senior Manager, Regulatory, Private and Public Sector Division, Economic Development Institute, World Bank. He has been a Lead Economist both in the Latin American and the Caribbean and in East Asia and Pacific Regions. He joined the Bank in 1981 as a senior economist, and was promoted to Principal Economist in 1986. Before joining the Bank, Mr. Leipziger was a member of the Policy Planning Staff and Deputy Director of the Planning and Analysis Division of the US Department of State. He is also Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of International Economics and Finance, Brandeis University. He has written several books on policy issues, and has published many articles in academic journals. Mr. Leipziger has a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.

Joaquim Vieira Ferreira Levy is the Secretary of the National Treasury for the Ministry of Finance, Brazil. Prior to taking his current position in January 2003, he served in a range of posts in the economic area of the Federal Government, including Deputy Secretary of Economical Policy at the Ministry of Finance in 2000 and Chief Economist at the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management in 2001-2002.

Mr. Levy began his career in 1984, working at the Engineering Department and the Operation Directorate of the maritime shipping company Flumar S/A. Before joining the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he lectured at the Graduate School of Economics of Fundação Getúlio Vargas. He held positions in several departments of the IMF, including Western Hemisphere (1992), European I (1993-1997), and Research (1997-1998). In 1999-2000 he served as a Visiting Economist at the European Central Bank, with assignments at the Capital Markets Division and in the Monetary Strategy Division of the Monetary Policy Directorate. Mr. Levy holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics, respectively from Fundação Getulio Vargas and the University of Chicago.

Johannes F. Linn held the position of the Bank's Vice President for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) from January 1996 through September 2003. He is now a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, involved in research and advisory work on transition issues in Central and South-East Europe, the Confederation of Independent States (CIS) and Turkey, on transatlantic relations and on cultural heritage preservation. Mr. Linn joined the World Bank in 1973. For nine years he worked in the Bank's research wing on issues of urban development policy. Based on his research, he has published various articles on urban development and urban public finance, and also two books: Cities in Developing World: Policies for Their Equitable and Efficient Growth (Oxford University Press, 1983) and (with Roy Bahl) Urban Public Finance in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press, 1992).

In 1978, Mr. Linn spent six months at the University of Munster, Germany, as a visiting researcher. Subsequently he served as Country Economist and Economic Advisor in the Bank's East Asia Region. In 1988, he published, with Amarendra Bhattacharya, a study entitled "Trade and Industrial Policy in the Developing Countries of East Asia" (World Bank Discussion Paper No. 27). In 1987/88, Mr. Linn was Staff Director of World Development Report 1988 which dealt principally with issues of public finance in development. Between 1988 and 1991, he served as Senior Economic Advisor in the Bank's Development Economics Department, as the Director of its International Economics Department and as Director of its Country Economics Department. In 1991, Mr. Linn was appointed the World Bank's Vice President for Financial Policy and Resource Mobilization. In that capacity, he was in charge of overall financial policies and prudential management of the World Bank (IBRD and IDA) and in charge of mobilizing capital resources for IBRD and donor resources for IDA and for the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Mr. Linn studied law at the Free University, Berlin, Germany. He received his training as an economist at Oxford University, England (BA, 1968), and at Cornell University, USA (Ph.D., 1972).

Ljerka Maric is the Minister of the Government Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Maric was the Economic Advisor to the Federal Deputy Prime Minster and Minister of Finance (Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) from 2000-2002. Her activities included development of Macroeconomic Vision of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as development of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), currently in the process of implementation.

As Assistant Minister of Finance for Economic Finances of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1999-2000, Ms. Maric was a member of the Appeal Commission, established under the Decree on Procurement of Goods, Services and Labour. She was also actively involved in discussions with World Bank representatives concerning the preparations of the Law on Public Procurement, as well as the Local Development Pilot Project. Ms. Maric was Minister of Finance of the Central Bosnia Canton from 1996-2000, where she too an active role in developing the Budget Law, developing of Canton Budgets fro 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, as well as in preparations for introduction of treasury operations system. I was also involved in the preparation of the Law on Funds Distribution between the Central Bosnia canton and its municipalities. Ms. Maric has a postgraduate degree in Economics from Zagreb.

Mark C. Medish is a partner in the public law and policy practice group of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. in Washington. Before joining Akin Gump, Mr. Medish served in the Clinton administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council (NSC), where he assisted the President and National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger in forming and implementing United States (U.S.) foreign policy toward Russia and the NIS. Prior to joining the NSC, Mr. Medish served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for international affairs; his regional portfolio covered Central Europe, the NIS, the Middle East and South Asia. Previously, he was Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Europe and the NIS at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Before entering public service, Mr. Medish was an attorney at Covington & Burling. Mr. Medish received his M.A. in Soviet studies and his J.D. from Harvard University.

Miguel Urrutia Montoya is General Manager of the Central Bank of Colombia, Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia. Before assuming this position in 1993, he was the Director of the Central Bank in 1991 and Executive Director of Fedesarrollo between 1989-1991 and 1978-1981. From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Urrutia Montoya was Manager of the Department of Economic and Social Development of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Prior to this, he was the Vice-rector of Development Studies at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Urrutia Montoya has also held the position of Secretary of Energy and Mining (1977), Director of the National Planning Department (1974-1976), Technical Deputy Manager of the Central Bank (1970-1974) and Secretary General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Public Credit in Colombia (1967-1969). Mr. Urrutia Montoya holds an MA and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkley.

F. Stephen O'Brien has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). He is also a university lecturer at George Washington University (GWU) Elliott School of International Relations and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Between 1973 and 1997, Mr. O'Brien was employed by the World Bank at various capacities including Country Economist, Senior Economist, and Lead Economist, East Africa; Chief Economist, West Africa; Chief Economist, Sub-Saharan Africa; and Chief of Regional Mission, Nairobi. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. O'Brien was an Assistant/Associate Professor at Williams College; Stanford University; University of California, Berkley; and University of Ife, Nigeria. He has overseas development experience working for the Ministry of Planning, Brazil and Institute of Administration, University of Ife, Nigeria. Mr. O'Brien received his MA in Economics from Stanford University.

R. Kyle Peters is Senior Manager, Country Evaluation and Regional Relations, in the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1982, he has held various economist positions in East Asia and Eastern and Central Europe. He was an economist in the Bank's Jakarta office in the early 1990s. Most recently, he was the Sector Manager for macroeconomic issues in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltics and European Union (EU) accession issues. In this position, he was actively involved in the Bank's early post-conflict activities in Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo. Mr. Peters studied at William and Mary, and holds a graduate degree in economics from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

Christiaan Poortman assumed the position of Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Region in July 2003. He oversees operations in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, West Bank and Gaza. Prior to that, he was Operations Director in the Vice President's office of the Africa Region serving as a focal point for key strategic and cross-cutting issues and responsible for monitoring the regional work program and aggregate deliverables. Mr. Poortman has also served as Country Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Coordinator for South East Europe (including oversight of the Bank's program in Kosovo) and as Country Director for Albania and FYR Macedonia and for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Mr. Poortman joined the Bank in 1976 as a Young Professional and worked as an Economist in the East Asia and Pacific Country Programs Department and as Division Chief in the West Africa Country Department, Industry and Energy Operations. He was the Bank's Resident Representative in Zimbabwe and Division Chief in the Europe and Central Asia Department. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Poortman worked for the United Nations Office of Technical Cooperation, in Swaziland, as Associate Expert Economist and Economist/Sectoral Planner. Mr. Poortman holds a B.Sc. in Economics, Macroeconomic Theory, and Business Economics, as well as a M.A. in Development Economics, from Groningen University in The Netherlands. He has also completed the Harvard Executive Development Program.

M. Saifur Rahman is Alternate Chairman of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNC), the highest government body to approve all development projects and programs of Bangladesh, Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Economic and Finance from 1991-1996 and Member of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is Bangladesh's Governor of World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) at present and also in 1980-1982 and 1991-1996.

Mr. Rahman graduated from the University of Dhaka in 1953 and studied in London from 1953-1958 and became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has a specialization in Monetary, Fiscal and Development Economics. Mr. Rahman was the Founder Partner of Rahman Rahman Huq, a representative firm of KPMG International. He has 35 years of multifarious professional involvement in his capacity as advisor and consultant in the national and transnational manufacturing, chemical, oil & gas exploration and marketing companies, transport systems, banking, insurance and finance. During 1976-1982 Mr. Rahman was Cabinet Minister of Finance, Planning, Commerce and Foreign Trade of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

As Minister and Chairman of various Cabinet Committees, Mr. Rahman has been actively involved in defining government's economic, monetary, fiscal and trade policies and is therefore in a position to assess from a national and international angle, the effects of privatization, liberalization and other reform policies on Bangladesh's democratic process, on its socio-economic development. Mr. Rahman was the principal architect of Bangladesh's economic, fiscal, trade, investment and institutional reforms and liberalization policies from 1991-996 and is the author of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in Bangladesh. Mr. Rahman was Member of Parliament in 1979-1982, 1996-1999 and 2001; and was Member of the Public Accounts Committee, Business Advisory Committee of the Parliament and Parliamentary Committee of the Ministry of Finance. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and chaired the 50th Anniversary conference of both these institutions in Madrid in October 1994.

S. Ramachandran is a Senior Evaluation Officer with the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group. Mr. Ramachandran was trained as an engineer and in business administration before getting a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. After a brief stint as an academic at the University of Wisconsin, he joined the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He joined the World Bank in 1987 and has worked in several regional departments and anchor units before joining the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) in 2001. He spent the past year and half in the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Vice President's office working on "The Lessons from the 1990s" report.

Margaret Thomas is currently Assistant Director-General responsible for the management of Australia's aid program to the Pacific Islands. She was previously posted to East Timor (1999-2002), and prior to that worked as Aid Adviser/ Departmental Liaison Officer for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Downer (1997-1999).

Ana Quirós Víquez is Executive Director and Founder of the Centre of Information and Advisory Services in Health (CISAS), a Nicaraguan NGO with 21 years of dedication to Education, Communication and Advocacy on Health and Development issues. With studies in Medicine, Health Administration and Development Planning, she is a founder and former Convenor of the National Civil Society coordinating body - Coordinadora Civil (CC) in Nicaragua. She is currently also the representative of the CC in the National Council of Economic and Social Planning - Consejo Nacional de Planificación Económica y Social (CONPES) a space for dialogue between the President and Civil Society representatives.

Ms. Quirós Víquez has actively participated in the process of design, implementation and follow-up for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in Nicaragua from the perspective of Civil Society. She has co-authored several articles on the topics of the PRSP in Nicaragua, Women and PRSP, as well as others. Her most recent articles include Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Reduction Initiatives, the case of Nicaragua and Evaluation of the Development and Implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy in Nicaragua. She is also an active member of the women and feminist movement in Nicaragua.

Shengman Zhang was appointed Managing Director of the World Bank Group in 1997. Mr. Zhang oversees all the six Operational regions of the Bank and the Operations Policy and Country Strategy Vice Presidency. He also oversees the Bank's four key Sector/Thematic Networks, including Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Human Development, Infrastructure, and Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development. In addition, Mr. Zhang oversees the Information Solutions Group and Network, the Human Resources Vice Presidency, the Corporate Secretariat, the Development Committee, the Quality Assurance Group, and the General Services Department. He chairs the Bank's Operations Policy Committee, the Operations Committee, the Sanctions Committee and the Corporate Committee on Fraud and Corruption Policy. Mr. Zhang is also Chairman of the Bank Group's Crisis Management Committee. Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Zhang was Vice President and Secretary of the World Bank from 1995 to 1997; and Executive Director for China from 1994 to 1995. Earlier, Mr. Zhang held a number of senior positions at the Ministry of Finance in China.