Philippines Economic Update Development Dialogues June 2024: Sustaining poverty reduction in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

Dr. Ndiamé Diop, from Senegal, is the World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. In this capacity, he leads the bank’s high-level strategic dialogue and the institution’s financial and technical/advisory programs in Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Diop was for four years the head of the Bank’s Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment unit for East Asia and the Pacific, based in Jakarta and Bangkok. In this role, he oversaw the bank’s 30-plus country economists working in East Asia and Pacific region and provided advisory and technical support to high-level officials on key macro, fiscal, trade and growth-enhancing reforms mainly in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, PNG and the Pacific Island countries.   

Dr. Diop was also for four years the World Bank Lead Economist for Indonesia. In this role, he led the overall economic policy dialogue, advisory and development policy lending work in Indonesia. Prior to relocating to Jakarta in 2012, Dr. Diop held lead economist roles for Jordan and Lebanon, country economist roles in the Middle East and North Africa, and was the Bank’s Resident Representative for Tunisia in 2007-2010. He joined the World Bank in Washington DC as a Young Professional in 2000.

As economist, Dr. Diop has published in peer reviewed journals and books on fiscal policy and growth, monetary policy and inflation, macro policies and resilience to sudden stops in capital inflows, the impacts of trade liberalization in developing countries, natural resource abundance, Dutch disease, and diversification.

Gonzalo is the Lead Economist and Program Leader of the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Practice Group for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, based in Manila. He specializes in growth, trade, and open macro, with more than 15 years of experience in policy advisory, policymaking, operations, and research. His professional focus is on partnering with governments, development institutions, academia, and the private sector to combine global and local knowledge with adequate financing instruments to provide solutions to key development challenges that client countries face. He has worked in a vast number of countries, across all regions, and income levels mainly on issues related to economic performance, trade and investment policy and macro-trade linkages, and impact evaluations of public policies. He combines professional experience with the public and private sector as well as international organizations. His work has been published in reports, books, and articles in peer-reviewed economic journals. 

Gonzalo has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, a Master’s in International Economics from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in Economics from the same university. 

Ralph van Doorn is the senior country economist for the World Bank in the Philippines, focusing on macroeconomy and fiscal policy. He has worked in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mongolia, and other countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked at Credit Suisse in London. He holds a Master of Research degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Master of Science degree in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology.

Nadia Belhaj Hassine is a Senior Economist with the East Asia Poverty Global Practice covering the Philippines and Thailand. Prior to this post, she worked in Tanzania, Burundi, Sudan, Gabon, Cameroon, Comoros and Madagascar under the same global practice. Before joining the World Bank, she was senior program specialist with Canada International Development Research Center. She taught in the University of Toulouse in France, University of Nabeul in Tunisia, and several other universities. Her research areas are poverty and inequality, gender, agricultural economics and applied econometrics. She has published many articles in academic journals, including World Development, World Bank Economic Review, European Review of Agricultural Economics, and  Journal of Development Studies.

Kevin Cruz is the Country Economist for the Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice.  Kevin currently leads the macroeconomic monitoring program of the World Bank Philippines and is working on fiscal policy issues for the Philippines. Prior to joining the Bank, Kevin worked in various research institutes in the University of the Philippines Diliman.  He is a PhD candidate in Economics from the same university, where he also received his MA Economics degree in 2011.

David Llorito is the External Affairs Officer of the World Bank Office in Manila. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was an urban and regional planner as well as a journalist who extensively covered economic and environmental policy issues for Manila-based and international media organizations.

Engr. Mohajirin T. Ali is the Bangsamoro Director General of Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BPDA- BARMM). Before joining the regional government, he served as a Project Director of the Socio-economic Office of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission. He was also previously employed as Mining Engineer III at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources- Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) for 19 years.

He is a licensed mining engineer, alumnus of Mapua Institute of Technology, Manila, and earned his Executive Master in National Security Administration (MNSA) at the National Defense College of the Philippines. He served as a member of the Secretariat of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel since 2001.

Chair, Council of Leaders, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society 

Executive Director, Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc. 

Lead-convenor, Independent Working Group for Transitional Justice and Dealing with the Past

Lead organizer, Tri-People Movement for Social Cohesion

Representative of civil society/people’s organization, Bangsamoro Economic and Development Council

Advocate for peace, human rights and good governance, and inclusive development

Ronald U. Mendoza, PhD is a governance and institutional reforms specialist with over 25 years of experience in development policy and public administration reforms. He is presently a Senior Economist with the Ateneo Policy Center and a Member of the United Nations Committee of the Experts on Public Administration (UN-CEPA). Recently, Mendoza served as Regional Director for Southeast Asia at IDinsight, a global advisory, data analytics, and research organization seeking to improve lives with the use of data and evidence. Prior to joining IDInsight, Ron served as Dean and Professor with the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government. Between August 2020 and July 2022, he also served as Chief of Party of PARTICIPATE, a three year USAID project focused on supporting citizens’ participation in governance and strengthening democratic and governance institutions. From 2011 to 2015, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), and the Executive Director of the AIM Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness. His research background includes work with UNICEF, UNDP, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and several Manila-based non-government organizations. In early 2021, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) approved Mendoza’s appointment to serve with the 24-person UN Committee of the Experts on Public Administration (CEPA 2021-2025). And in 2022 and 2023, Mendoza was listed among the Philippines’ top 100 scientists in the AD Scientific Index based on the total number of citations in the last five years. +AMDG

Sharon Faye Piza is an economist at the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions East Asia and the Pacific, Poverty and Equity Unit of the World Bank. She was a senior research associate at the Asia Pacific Policy Center and a research consultant for various organizations. Her research interest is regional development, poverty, migration, and agriculture. She studied at the University of the Philippines.