 | Sergiy Zorya Sergiy Zorya is the Global Lead in the Public Policy and Expenditure team. Sergiy joined the World Bank in 2005 as a Young Professional. Since then, he worked in Africa, East Asia and Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia Regions, and the Agriculture and Rural Development anchor. During 2013-2023, Sergiy was in the field assignments in Thailand, Viet Nam, Uzbekistan, and Austria. He holds the master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the Agricultural University of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany.
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 | Md Mansur Ahmed Mansur Ahmed is a Senior Economist in the PPE team. Mansur joined the World Bank as Agriculture Economist in 2017 in South Asia Region. He has since worked in or provided cross-support for South Asia, Africa, and East Asia, and has been leading/co-leading advisory activities and operations on agricultural policies, agricultural productivity, market linkages, rural jobs, and rural non-farm entrepreneurship. Before joining the World Bank, he worked at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. Mansur holds a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University. | |
 | Joshua Gill Joshua Gill is a Senior Economist in the PPE team. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University. He joined the World Bank as Young Professional in 2020 and since then he has worked in the Global teams in the Agriculture Practice at the World Bank and IFC. He started his career in the fertilizer sector and before joining the World Bank he worked in impact investing as director of analytics for the Global Innovation Fund. His research interests include agricultural development and public policy and the use of behavioral and experimental methods to understand decision making of agricultural households. | |
 | Nicholas Baynham Nicholas Baynham is a Senior Agriculture Economist in the Public Policies and Expenditures (PPE) team at the World Bank. He joined the World Bank in 2025 on secondment from the UK Government, working on agricultural policy reform and public spending. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked on agriculture, food and climate reform with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with postings in Nigeria, Ghana, and Indonesia. His professional interests span agricultural development and public policy, with a technical focus on market systems development, climate smart agriculture, sustainable commodities, forestry governance, and jobs and entrepreneurship. | |
 | Francis Addeah Darko Francis Addeah Darko is an Economist in the PPE team. He holds a PhD and MS in Applied Economics from Purdue University. He joined the World Bank’s Young Professional Program in 2019 and has worked with both the Agriculture and Food GP and the Poverty and Equity GP. Francis’ work program cuts across both analytical and operational activities. His analytical work has cut across distributional impact of fiscal policy, agricultural policy and nutritional policy, and Agriculture Public Expenditures in Africa and Asia; and his operational experience has focused on Asia. | |
 | Bhavya Srivastava Bhavya Srivastava is a Young Professional in the PPE team. She has previous experience at the World Bank as a Robert S. McNamara fellow and a consultant within the Development Research Group and Africa Chief Economist’s Office, respectively. She also worked at J-PAL South Asia towards policies addressing the water-energy nexus. Bhavya's research has focused on developmental, environmental, and agricultural economics. She studies the impacts of climate change and environmental shocks on outcomes such as agricultural production, out-migration, learning, and voting behavior. Bhavya holds a PhD in Economics from Georgetown University (2024), an MA in Economics from Boston University and Georgetown University, and a BA in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College. | |
 | Jonas Wittern Jonas Wittern is an Agricultural Specialist in the PPE Team. He joined the World Bank in December 2025 on secondment from GIZ and holds degrees in Agriculture and Agricultural Economics from Humboldt University zu Berlin. In his current role, Jonas works on the Repurposing Agricultural Support agenda and supports the institutionalization of dialogue with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Prior to joining the World Bank, Jonas worked at GIZ, where he advised the BMZ on agricultural policy issues, supported political diplomacy and communications within GIZ’s agricultural and food systems portfolio, and contributed to the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Project in Nigeria. | |
 | Mariam Haidary Mariam Haidary is the Program Assistant supports the PPE Team. Prior to that she was in the Fragility, Conflict, Violence and Forced Displacement Group. She held positions in the operational and procurement unit in the World Bank’s Afghanistan country office. Her work has focused on administrative management support to the team. She has experience working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Prior to the World Bank, she spent most of her career working with United Nations Development Program in Islamabad, Pakistan. |