Closing the Caribbean Data Gap: Addressing Poverty and Inequality

Gail is the World Bank Operations Manager for the Caribbean countries and Head of the World Bank’s Office in Jamaica. In this role, she works closely with government counterparts, the Country Director, and technical teams to support countries to address their development challenges.

Prior to joining the Latin America and Caribbean region, Gail was the Practice Manager for the Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) portfolio for the South Asia region. In this role, she guided the development and quality of Bank supported HNP analytical products and financing operations in support of the Bank’s goals to end poverty and boost shared prosperity. Gail holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration focusing on health policy and finance from the New York University (NYU). 

Jacobus de Hoop is a senior economist in the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Global Practice. At the World Bank, Jacob currently leads the Gender Innovation Lab for Latin America and the Caribbean and supports the organization’s program in Barbados, Belize, and Suriname.

Before joining the World Bank, Jacob worked as a humanitarian policy research manager at UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, was a member of the Transfer Project, worked as a researcher at the International Labour Organization (ILO), and was affiliated with the Paris School of Economics as a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow. He holds a PhD in economics from the Tinbergen Institute and VU University in Amsterdam. 

Trinidad is an Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. Currently, she leads the poverty and equity work programs of Chile and Grenada. As part of her work in the Caribbean, she also leads the harmonization of consumption in Caribbean countries and supports the implementation of the World Bank Data for Decision-Making Project in Grenada. Her research interests include topics related to poverty reduction, inclusive growth, the distributional impact of fiscal and social policies, gender, migration, and household finances. 

Previously, she supported the gender work program in Mexico and the poverty and equity work programs of Western Balkans countries and Armenia, where she contributed to several analytical and statistical capacity-building activities. Before joining the Bank, she worked at the Central Bank of Chile in the Financial Research Unit, where she co-led projects focused on assessing households' indebtedness and multiple imputation of missing data. She holds a Master's degree in Finance and Econometrics from the Queen Mary University of London and a Master's degree in Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Chile.

Anna Luisa is an Economist in the Latin America and Caribbean Unit of the Poverty & Equity Global Practice at the World Bank. She currently works in the Caribbean Poverty Team on poverty, inequality and statistical capacity development, co-leading the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) Data for Decision Making Project and a range of analytical products. She is the poverty economist for Saint Lucia and Guyana. 

Previously Anna Luisa worked on Brazil, Sri Lanka and in the Europe and Central Asia Region for the Poverty & Equity Global Practice and with the World Bank’s Development Research Group on micro- and small firm development. Before joining the World Bank, she was a Young Professional at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) where she worked on financial sector development in Mozambique. Anna Luisa holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Passau in Germany.

Rosita’s main research areas are poverty and inequality, macro-economic modeling, and forecasting, developing issues for small open economies, and changing attitudes in gender and ethnic roles in society. 

As a member of the National Poverty Commission of Suriname her main contribution is to provide technical support to the team regarding accurate poverty line measurement and targeting programs.

Mr. Halim Brizan is the Director of Regional Statistics at the CARICOM Secretariat and has been serving in this position for just over one year. Prior to his appointment of Director of Regional Statistics he served as Director of Statistics at the Central Statistical Office (CSO) in Grenada for 13 years. During his tenure at the CSO in Grenada, Mr. Brizan served on various national, regional and international committees. These include, the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics (AGS); the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS); the Inter-Agency Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (IAEG-SDG); the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA); Grenada’s National Emergency Advisory Committee, as chair of Damage Assessment and Need Analysis; the National Census Advisory Committee and the National Assessment Team (for the enhanced country poverty assessment).

Mr. Brizan is a strong advocate for teamwork, consensus building, human resource development, innovation and overall capacity building. His Educational Background includes a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics and Management from the University of the West Indies and a Master of Science Degree in Finance and Econometrics from the University of London.