Francis Ghesquiere is the Head of the Secretariat for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery (GFDRR). Prior to this, he was Program Manager for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in the World Bank’s South Asia region where he supported a fast growing portfolio, preparing several new initiatives, including a Strategic Seismic Risk Mitigation Program for Bangladesh, a Flood Recovery Program in the State of Bihar, and Strengthening of Emergency Response Capacity in the Province of Balochistan, Pakistan. Before his assignment in South Asia, Francis was a Regional Coordinator in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, where he led a number of flagship initiatives, including the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and the Central America Catastrophe Probabilistic Risk Assessment initiative (CAPRA). He led the establishment of the Understanding Risk Forum (UR), which brings together experts and practitioners to explore innovation in disaster risk assessment. Francis was a key actor in the design of new policy instruments to help accelerate the World Bank’s response to disasters, including the new policy on emergency operations and innovative contingent financing instruments. He is a core member of the DRM Global Expert Team where he covers Disaster Risk Reduction, Risk Modeling, and Risk Financing. Francis holds a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an Engineering Degree from the University of Louvain. He also studied Finance and Economics at New York University, ESADE Barcelona, and HEC Paris.
