World Bank at the World Urban Forum 11 (WUF11)

Established by UN-Habitat, the World Urban Forum is the premier international conference on sustainable urbanization and urban issues.

The theme of the eleventh session of World Urban Forum (WUF11), Transforming Our Cities for a Better Urban Future, focuses on raising important questions about the future of cities, including what form they should take, and the kind of cities needed to support the future of humanity.

Join us from June 26-30, as World Bank specialists lead or participate in a series of discussions with global partners, ranging from governments and civil society to the private sector and academia in the city of Katowice, Poland.

This edition of the World Urban Forum will feature dialogues on urban crisis prevention and response, special sessions on green resilient cities and climate change, while also hearing the voices of cities.

Follow the World Bank at WUF11 on social media:

• Download our digital brochure to learn more about our work and what we will discuss at the WUF. [PDF]
• Follow @WBG_Cities, @SamehNWahba and @DasMaitreyi on Twitter and tweet using #WUF11
• Subscribe to the Sustainable Cities blog
• Subscribe to the Sustainable Cities & Communities newsletter

Blogs:

• Accessible sidewalks for inclusive cities
• Integrating disability inclusion in disaster risk management: the whys and hows
• The World Bank Technical Note on Accessibility

Sameh Wahba

Sameh Wahba, an Egyptian national, is the Regional Director for Sustainable Development at the Europe and Central Asia Region at the World Bank, based in Washington, DC, where he oversees all World Bank lending, technical assistance and policy advisory work in agriculture and food, environment, natural resources and the blue economy, social inclusion and sustainability, urban, disaster risk management, resilience and land, water, and climate change.

Prior to that, he served as the Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, where he oversaw the formulation of the World Bank’s strategy, design, and delivery of all lending, technical assistance, policy advisory activities, and partnerships at the global level, including a portfolio of $30bn and a team of 450 professionals. He served as Practice Manager for Urban and Disaster Risk Management in Africa and the Global Urban and Resilience Unit, and as Acting Director of Operations and Strategy for the Global Practice. He worked as Sustainable Development Sector Leader for Brazil, based in Brasilia, and as an urban specialist focused on housing, land, local economic development, and municipal management and service delivery in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Middle East and North Africa Regions. Prior to joining the Bank in 2004, he worked at the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies in Rotterdam and at the Harvard Center for Urban Development Studies. He has over 25 years experience in urban, housing, land, infrastructure and sustainable development.

Mr. Wahba holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in urban planning from Harvard University, and a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Architectural Engineering from Cairo University. He speaks Arabic, French, English, and Portuguese. He co-authored the World Bank’s flagship publication on “Regenerating Urban Land: A Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Private Investment” and the “Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery” Position Paper jointly with UNESCO.

 Maitreyi Bordia Das

Maitreyi Bordia Das is Practice Manager in the Urban, Resilience and Land Global Practice of the World Bank. She oversees several global programs, including the Global Partnership for Results Based Approaches (formerly, GBOPA) and the Tokyo Development Learning Center. Previously, she was the Bank’s first Global Lead on Social Inclusion.

Based in Washington DC, Dr. Das leads a talented group of professionals who work on urban development, resilience and inclusion. She has long-standing research and policy experience in human development and infrastructure related sectors. Of these, urban development, water and sanitation, demography, health, social protection and social development, stand out.

Having started her career as a lecturer in St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Dr. Das has also been a MacArthur Fellow at the Harvard Center of Population and Development Studies and an advisor to the United Nations Development Program. She has a PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Maryland. Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Das was in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

 Ellen Hamilton

Ellen Hamilton is a Lead Urban Specialist for the Urban, Resilience and Land Global Practice – Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. She has twenty-five years’ experience leading analytical work and projects focusing on sustainable urban development, covering topics such as: affordable land/ housing supply and demand; urban growth; urban planning; urban services; municipal management; municipal finance; urban upgrading and regeneration, and conflict and violence prevention.  She particularly enjoys working across sectoral boundaries.   She has experience in post-conflict and fragile states as well as upper middle-income countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia.  She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation about housing and residential differentiation in Moscow.

 Joanna Masic

Joanna Masic is the Global Lead for the Sustainable City Infrastructure and Services for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience, and Land Global Practice. She is Lead Urban Specialist, Cities and Climate change in the Europe and Central Asia Region, based in Brussels.

Ms. Masic is an Environmental Scientist and Geographer with over 20 years’ experience managing sustainable city infrastructure lending, grants and advisory services across Asia and Europe.

She holds an MSc in Environmental Epidemiology and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MA in Environmental Science and Geography from the University of Dundee, UK. She is a Chartered Scientist (UK Science Council) and Chartered Water and Environment Manager (UK Chartered Institute of Water and Environment Management).

 Augustin Maria

Augustin Maria is the Program Manager of the World Bank City Climate Finance Gap Fund, based in Brussels. Since joining the World Bank in 2008, he has worked in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as South Asia on issues related to urban development and disaster risk management. He graduated as an engineer from the Ecole des Mines in Paris and holds a PhD in economics from University of Paris-Dauphine.

Mohamed Nada

Mohamed Nada is a Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank. For the past twenty years, Mohamed has acquired in depth knowledge and have managed multiple programs focusing on lagging regions, urban and rural development, policy and legal reforms, institutional analysis, land administration, territorial and metropolitan governance, and youth and women empowerment. Before joining the World Bank, Mohamed was the Program Manager of the Urban Policies, Governance and Legislation Program at the UN-Habitat, and prior to that, the Program Director for the Governance and Civic Engagement program at CARE International in Egypt. Mohamed studied MSc in Environment and Development at School of Development studies, University of East Anglia, UK, and is currently a PhD research Fellow at Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University, Netherlands. The aim focus of Mohamed Nada’s research is policy divergence in the implementation of cities expansion policies in the developing world. He has also undertaken several post graduate studies focusing on: legal drafting at the University of London, land administration at the Erasmus University, and marketing at the American University in Cairo.

 Grzegorz Wolszczak 

Grzegorz Wolszczak is an Urban Development Specialist at the World Bank mapped to the Europe and Central Asia region. He specializes in evidence-based regional and urban development with a focus on interjurisdictional collaboration in planning and implementing integrated territorial investments, spatial development and decarbonization. Grzegorz concentrates on working with lagging regions and has led and co-led multi-sector programs in that area that helped design and test new solutions and multi-level governance models. His portfolio includes activities at the municipal, functional area, regional, national and European level. He is also experienced in supporting national and regional innovation systems and enhancing collaboration between public research organizations and businesses. Prior to over ten years in the World Bank, Grzegorz worked in public administration and the private sector. He holds the Master of Public Policy and MSc in European Studies.