Climate-smart Public Financial Management Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Conference

Since November 2022, Ms. Asmaa Resmouki has served as IFAC's President. She has more than thirty years of experience in the accountancy and auditing profession, including serving as audit partner in the large auditing firms (Deloitte and EY) in Morocco. In 2020, she started her consultancy practice firm where she has been assisting different organizations in projects relating to the profession and to advisory services.

Mr. Orjales has twenty years of experience in designing, implementing, and monitoring technical assistance programs in the areas of public finance management and financial sector development. As the thematic lead on tax policy and administration, he represented Switzerland in several global initiatives and international fora dedicated to domestic resources mobilization. Since 2020, he has been responsible for digital government transformation at SECO. 

Dr Vivi Niemenmaa is Secretary General of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) at the National Audit Office of Finland. She leads the activities of WGEA, a network of 86 Supreme Audit Institutions, which develops audit methodology and provides support and a platform for peer exchange.

Fadia Elgharib is the community manager at the Global Innovation Gathering in Berlin, Germany, a network of grassroots innovators, social entrepreneurs, founders, and managers of makerspaces, and innovation hubs. Fadia has facilitated meaningful exchanges between organizations across Europe, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia for the past five years, building on members' pools of knowledge and existing technologies

Holy-Tiana Rame is Senior Governance Specialist within the PEFA Secretariat. She joined the PEFA Secretariat in September 2013. She has been instrumental in the upgrade of the PEFA Framework and the development and piloting of the PEFA supplementary framework on climate responsive PFM (PEFA Climate). She has advised PEFA assessment teams of more than 50 countries across the world.

James is a Partner at Public Digital, a specialist digital transformation consultancy working with large institutions globally. He has worked with public and private sector organisations to build their technology capabilities, develop digital and transformation strategies, and help them deliver radical new services.

Jens Kromann Kristensen is a Practice Manager in the Middle East and North Africa Region where he oversees the World Bank programs on governance and institutions as well as fiduciary assurance of the World Bank’s lending portfolio in the region.

He has extensive experience in public sector governance including his previous role as Head of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat, his work at the Danish Ministry of Finance, OECD, KPMG and the World Bank Regional Departments in East Asia & the Pacific, Europe & Central Asia and East & West Africa.

Lamiaa holds the position of Education Manager at San3a Tech (Fab Lab Egypt) where she leads the design and development of learning experiences and educational programs for makerspaces, such as Maker Diploma and Girls Make. Lamiaa is a Co-founder and an Executive Committee Member at the Arab Science Week (ASW), and formerly, she was a Co-founder and School Program Manager at the Egyptian Science Week (ESW).

Additionally, Lamiaa held the position of Science Communication Specialist at the Department of Physics at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

Mai is a senior auditor at Egypt Accountability State Authority (ASA). She is a member of ASA’s Working Group on Environment Audit (WGEA). She is the representative of Egypt ASA at the INTOSAI Working Group on Environment Audit (WGEA) Steering Committee. Mia has an M.Sc. in accounting and auditing

Manar Abu Hazim is a dedicated professional with a background in Water and Environmental Engineering. As head of Emissions Reduction Department, she has been instrumental in developing and implementing strategies to mitigate environmental impact and combat climate change.

She participated in preparing national reports related to emissions mitigation. With a bachelor's and master's degrees in her field, Manar brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role. Before her current position, she was a Technical Assistant to the Minister's Advisor for Technical Affairs.

Mark leads ACCA’s global public sector research as part of the Policy and Insights team, focusing on current issues affecting finance professionals working in the public sector across different countries. He authored ‘Preparing for Sustainability Reporting and Assurance’, an introduction for the public sector globally, jointly published by ACCA, IFAC and the INTOSAI Development Initiative, and also developed ACCA’s toolkit on green budgeting.

Mark has a MA in Public Administration and Public Policy and a MSc in Public Financial Management. He is a qualified Chartered Public Finance Accountant and previously worked in local government in England.

Mona works at both the PEFA Secretariat and the World Bank Governance Global Practice. At the PEFA Secretariat, she is leading the supplementary framework for assessing gender responsive public financial management (PEFA Gender) and supporting the quality assurance tasks of PEFA++.

During her 20-year career at the World Bank, Mona has led and supported operations on governance and public sector management, in addition to advising on fiduciary assurance and designing, development and conducting of knowledge and learning programs.

Peter is Senior Public Sector Specialist working in the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa region. He works across the region with a focus on regulatory governance and state-owned enterprise reforms.

He has extensive experience with driving reforms in these fields, including from earlier assignments with the IFC, OECD, PA Consulting Group, and the Danish Ministry of Finance. Within the World Bank Group he has worked SOE and Regulatory Reform programs in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and South East Asia.

An experienced procurement professional, Ms Moutchou brings a wealth of knowledge built from her diverse background in responsible financial positions. She boasts expertise in expenses control, public procurement, and budget management. In addition to her responsibilities at the TGR, Mrs. Fatiha MOUTCHOU is actively involved in conducting training and seminars, particularly focused on the integration and professionalization of management services.

Yolanda Saito is an international lawyer, civil engineer and expert facilitator with 20+ years of professional experience in the sustainable development sector. She has advised various public and private sector companies to lead the way in designing sustainable operations and supply chains, specializing in designing reform pathways, capacity building and market engagement through digital tools and data-driven approaches.

She is a co-author of the World Bank’s 2021 publication on Green Public Procurement: An Overview of Green Reforms in Country Procurement Systems. Her company, Impacti, designs AI-driven GHG/SDG impact management software to engage offices and suppliers in carbon neutrality goals, used by United Nations agencies and companies worldwide. 

Nadir Abdellatif Mohammed is the Regional Director for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Prior to this appointment, he was the Director of Strategy and Operations in the Human Development Practice Group of the Bank overseeing the Human Capital project; as well as the Global Practices for education; health, nutrition and population; and social protection and jobs.

From 2014-2018, Dr. Mohammed served as the Country Director of the GCC Countries in the MENA region of the World Bank.

Naoufal Mahdar is Vice-President of Climate Action & Decarbonisation at OCP since 2020. Previously, Naoufal spent over 15 years in various technical and managerial functions at Total and BP, involved within major projects in Northern Europe, Africa and Middle-East. From 2016 to 2020, Naoufal managed a North-African investment fund ventures in energy storage and recycling.

He is also in charge of the OCP decarbonisation program innovation, green projects, carbon farming deployment, carbon offsets and partnerships. 

Philippe Benoit has over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of energy, sustainable development and finance, in both the public and private sectors and in academia. He is currently Research Director for the platform Global Infrastructure Analytics and Sustainability 2050 (see www.gias2050.com for a list of his recent publications) and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP).

Richard is a Senior Governance Specialist in the Public Finance and Procurement Global Unit of the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice. He is also a member of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat. Richard joined the World Bank in 2013.

In his current role, Richard oversees the Financial Management Umbrella Program, a pivotal global initiative utilized by the World Bank to facilitate trust-funded reforms aimed at optimizing public financial management (PFM) in client countries. Serving as the global lead for Climate Change Governance, he leads initiatives to enhance expertise and collaboration in technical areas such as Climate-Responsive Budgeting, Climate-Smart Public Investment Management, and Green Public Procurement

Ross leads the IPSASB staff team in their work to develop International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). Since joining IPSASB in 2013, Ross has led the development and implementation of IPSASB’s governance activities, and the establishment of the IPSASB Consultative Advisory Group.

Ross also oversaw the IPSASB’s projects related to financial instruments accounting and the development of the IPSASB Strategy and Work Plan 2019-2023. Prior to joining the IPSASB, Ross worked for several years for a big-4 accounting firm in Canada and Japan.

Stephane Guimbert was appointed Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, effective August 1, 2023. Prior to this assignment, Guimbert was the Bank’s Operations Policy Director in the Operations Policy and Country Services Vice Presidency (OPCS). In this role, he led the Bank’s operations policy reform and interpretation for all financing instruments.

He co-led the coordination of the IDA/IBRD COVID-19 vaccines program, the steering of the new Country Climate and Development Reports, and the methodology for Paris Alignment of all IDA/IBRD financing flows. He also established a coordination mechanism with other multilateral development banks (MDBs) on operational policies and strengthened the partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Stephen Davenport is currently the Global Lead for Anticorruption, Openness, and Transparency at the World Bank Group. He currently works on various projects related to Open Government and GovTech, and co-leads the Innovation in Tax Compliance program, which promotes strategies to engender greater trust in tax administrations.

He is an International Development professional with more than 20 years of experience in program innovation, development, fundraising, communications, client relationship management, and delivery of e-Government services for development. More recently, he leads efforts in support of the global transparency, accountability, results, citizen engagement, open government, open data, and open development agendas.

Adeel is the Regional Coordinator for climate change in the World Bank, Middle East and North Africa Region and brings over 20 years of experience in Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Resilience/DRM and Green Growth. In this capacity, he leads the technical advice and guidance to WB programs and projects in the region for climate smart development. He led the development of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Change Roadmap and continues to support the roll out and implementation of the plan and associate knowledge working with teams across the institution.

Through his work, Tim aims to strengthen the role of public finance and other governance reforms in enabling the achievement of development results. Tim currently leads an initiative to Reimagine Public Finance and has a particular interest in understanding how governments can drive policy implementation, in areas such as climate change, through the budget.

He is also leading an initiative called GovEnable which aims to empower governments to make public finance and institutions work for service delivery. Tim joined the World Bank in 2016 and was initially based in Nairobi, from where he led governance engagements in Kenya and Uganda.

Winston Percy Onipede Cole is a Lead Governance Specialist (Financial Management) in the Governance Practice with 16 years of World Bank experience in East and West Africa, South Asia, Pacific Island Countries, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He is a trusted adviser to government counterparts on Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms and other strategic policy issues.

In his career in the Bank, Winston has led wide range of governance reforms ranging from fiscal policy, planning and budget preparation, accounting and financial reporting, internal and external auditing, institutional strengthening, Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS), and contributed to development policy operations.

She is entrusted with various responsibilities in relation to economic issues including the issuance of sovereign guarantees as well as loans provided to the Ministry of Finance. She is actively involved with negotiations with various counterparties and financial institutions in this respect.

Mrs. Sharkawy spearheaded the work on Egypt’s first Islamic/conventional loan and second Islamic/green loan as well as the issuance of the Samurai Bond. She is also involved in proposed commercial solutions for various disputes with external parties and resolving various entanglements within government entities. She was part of the team responsible for the Finance Day during COP27, handling various financing solutions to encourage green/sustainable initiatives. She is an experienced corporate banker and financier and has held various roles in direct investment and private equity as well as roles with advisory fields.

Eng. Hosny has been in this position since July 2015. He is also the National Focal Point to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) & United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2012.

He is the deputy-head of the Egyptian Climate Change Negotiation Delegation in COPs. Early in 2020, he was nominated to be the National Focal Point to the Green Climate Fund. He is a board member of the Center of Excellence for Research and Applied Studies of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, National Research Center.

Dr Ahern is currently based in Cairo where he is the Lead Country Economist for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti.

He joined the Bank in 2008 and before his current role he worked on Palestine and Indonesia. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked as an advisor for the IMF with assignments in Africa, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East. Mark is originally from New Zealand where he worked for the New Zealand Treasury, focusing on overseeing SOE reform, tax policy, and leading the Budget team preparing the New Zealand Government budget.

Mr. Petrie is an independent consultant working on the interface between public financial management and environmental sustainability.

He has consulted extensively for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other institutions over the last twenty-five (25) years on fiscal risk management, Climate-sensitive public investment management, and green public financial management.

Mona E. Fayed is a Professor at the Economics Department of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS), Cairo University. She got her Ph.D. in Economics in 2010 and was awarded as best Ph.D. thesis by Cairo University.

Mona is currently the Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Development for Sustainable Development. She is also, a member of the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies (IJEMS), published by the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI), as well as a member of the Editorial Associate Board of the Scientific Journal of Faculty of Economics and Political Science (REPS).

Mrs Biletska currently leads policy dialogue on public financial management reforms in Egypt as well as public financial investment management and tax reforms in Palestine. She also leads a program on analytical and advisory activities on climate governance and public financial management in the MENA region.

Previously, she led policy dialogue on public financial management, tax and digital government reforms in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kyrgyz Republic, Serbia and Ukraine. She has also worked on operations in East Asia. Since joining the Bank in 2000, Nataliya was responsible for the development of public finance and PFM training programs for Bank staff.

Mr. Bogetić currently leads analytical and advisory work and economic teams on macroeconomic and structural reform issues focused on Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti. He also leads a program of analytical and advisory activities on macroeconomic policy and climate change in the MENA region.

Previously, he served as the Bank’s lead economist and thematic coordinator for economic policy in the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group. He has also served as the Bank’s lead Economist and Economic Policy Coordinator for Western Balkans, Russian Federation, South Africa and SACU countries, as well as several West African countries. Željko has served at the Bank and the IMF for three (3) decades in a variety of Economist and Leadership roles in all world regions.

Simon Groom began his career as an Economist working on feasibility studies of transport infrastructure projects, first in the United Kingdom and then internationally. He also worked on broader public financial management reforms in Bosnia, Albania and Vietnam.

Since 2008 he has specialized almost exclusively in advising on public investment management (PIM) reforms, working with the World Bank, IMF and IADB. This has involved participating on PIM diagnostic assessments and providing technical assistance to governments in the European Union, (non-EU) Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Mr. Van den Broek is an independent Consultant specialised in Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and accredited CP3P trainer. His professional experience of more than twenty-five (25) years covers primarily infrastructure finance and PPPs.

He was founder and director of the PPP Unit within the Dutch Ministry of Transport and acted for nine years as Director PPP & Financial Advisory Services at the consulting firm ECORYS. Before ECORYS, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Ministry of Transport in the Netherlands and Arthur Andersen. Marcel has worked on more than one hundred (100) projects predominantly in transport infrastructure including roads, railways, and ports. He has also worked on the real estate sector in over fifty (50) countries, mostly in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Mr. Galvez Mendez joined the OECD in 2007 and has had a diverse portfolio including managing work programmes on SMEs, entrepreneurship, competitiveness, responsible business conduct and private sector development.

He has led and contributed to several policy reports and capacity building programmes in emerging countries. He has also advanced the engagement of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America with the OECD. He joined the State-Owned Enterprises team at the Capital Markets Division of the OECD in January 2024.

Dr. El-Bayya obtained his PhD and master’s degrees in civil engineering—Hydraulics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, MO, USA and his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Birzeit University, Palestine.

He has worked extensively on country public procurement reviews, country public procurement reforms, fiduciary review and led/participated in several studies and research on public procurement. He has provided many capacity building trainings on World Bank procurement procedures and contract management. He also worked as the Global Lead Procurement Specialist working in the EFI Governance Global Practice, as Sr. Operation Officer and Sr. Procurement Specialist in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, Central Asia and South Asia region.

She serves as the procurement Focal Point for the Paris Alignment and the Climate Change Taskforce at the World Bank. With over a decade of experience in World Bank operations, her focus on advancing Green Public Procurement in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is evident in her leadership of related projects. This includes her active contribution to procurement reforms, as well as promoting sustainable procurement with transparency and efficiency.

Jocelyne holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Wales, UK. She is currently pursuing a PhD in International Law

Ms. Zehri has held the position of General Controller of Public Procurement since 2014. With over two decades of experience in the field, she has operated at various capacities within key government procurement oversight institutions, including the Former High Tender Board, and the Public Procurement Observatory.

Ms. Zehri has played a pivotal role in fostering strategic dialogues on Public Procurement reforms between the Tunisian Government and its Technical and Financial Partners -including Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) such as the World Bank. She also imparts her expertise as a Lecturer on Public Procurement for the master’s program at the Faculté des Sciences Juridiques de Tunis and has trained senior government officials at the École Nationale d'Administration of Tunis.

Eng. Khliefat brings a wealth of experience in Public and Green procurement. With an educational background in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan and an impressive twenty-eight (28) year career, Mr. Khliefat has been involved in a wide range of civil construction projects including hospitals, governmental buildings, international borders, free zones, industrial cities, embassies, investment areas, and infrastructure works.

Since May 2018, Mr. Khliefat has held the position of General Director at the Government Tenders Department, Kingdom of Jordan.