Addressing Air Quality and Climate: Lessons from Countries and Scaling Up

As the Regional Vice President for South Asia, Mr. Raiser manages Bank relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and oversees a portfolio of projects, technical assistance and financial resources worth almost US$55 billion.

Before joining the region, Mr. Raiser was the World Bank’s Country Director for China and Mongolia, and Director for Korea. Mr. Raiser has also held positions as the Country Manager in Uzbekistan, Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Country Director for Turkey, and Country Director for Brazil.

Mr. Raiser holds a doctorate degree in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Kiel, Germany, and degrees in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Before joining the World Bank in 2003, Mr. Raiser worked for the Kiel Institute of World Economics and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where he was Director of Country Strategy and Editor of the Transition Report.

Manuela V. Ferro was appointed World Bank Regional Vice President for East Asia and Pacific (EAP) in September 2021. Prior to this appointment, she was World Bank Vice President of Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS), where she oversaw the World Bank’s corporate policies on financing and analytical services.

A Portuguese national, Ms. Ferro has over 25 years of hands-on and leadership experience in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. Throughout her professional career, she has shaped creative development solutions for countries as diverse as post-conflict, low-income all the way to upper middle-income countries. She brings to her current position a track record of modernization of operations policies, a history of forging productive partnerships with client countries and development partners, and a focus on client services.

An economist and an engineer by training, Ms. Ferro worked in technical and corporate positions at the World Bank. She previously served as the Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in the Middle East and North Africa, where she oversaw the team of economists and governance specialists. She also served as the World Bank’s Director for Strategy and Operations for Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing the operational and analytical work in this region.

Ms. Anna Wellenstein has over 25 years of experience in sustainable development, leading strategy, design and financing of investments, facilitating policy reforms, and building capacity to help countries reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity in a sustainable manner.  She is currently the Regional Director for East Asia and Pacific in the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Practice Group. Ms. Wellenstein is responsible for the World Bank’s agriculture and food, climate change, disaster risk management, environment, land, social, urban, and water portfolios in the region. This includes analytics and financing to the countries of the region totaling nearly US$16 billion in over 100 projects.

Prior to this, Ms. Wellenstein held positions as Regional Director for Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean and Director for Strategy and Operations of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice. 

Mr. Zhao Yingmin has served as the Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment since 2016. Prior to that, he was the ministry’s Chief Engineer. In September 2005, he was appointed Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Standards and in September 2013, he was appointed Director General of the Department of Pollution Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). He started working at the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) in 1989, and later worked at the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) – including as Deputy Director General of the Department of Science, Technology and Standards of SEPA between 2000 and 2005. Mr. Zhao has a PhD in Science.

Dr. Farhina Ahmed has served as Bangladesh’s Secretary of Environment since May 2022. Prior to that, she worked in the civil service in the capacities of Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary, and Deputy Secretary in the Finance Division. In her 30-year career in government service, Dr. Ahmed also held leadership positions at the Ministries of Education, Health, Housing and Public Works, Women and Child Affairs, and Field Administration, and at the Bangladesh Civil Service. Dr. Ahmed obtained her bachelor’s (with honors) and master’s degrees from the Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka. She received a master’s degree from Monash University, Australia, under the Australian Award, and a PhD from RMIT University, under the Australian Leadership Award. She also completed advanced studies on human rights at the Lund University, Sweden.

Shri Bhupender Yadav is a Cabinet Minister in the Government of India, and has served as the Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change since July 2021. He also serves as the Minister for Labour and Employment. He has been a Member of Parliament since 2012. He has chaired and served as a member on several Parliamentary Committees including Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice Committee, Business Advisory Committee, Joint Committee on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Select Committee of Rajya Sabha on the Prevention of Corruption. He has also authored a book on ‘Supreme Court on Forest Conservation’. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Government College, Ajmer.