Biographies of Speakers - Regional Workshop Program-for-Results
Financing
Bella Bird, Tanzania Country Director, World Bank
Ms. Bella Bird, a British and Australian national, is the Country Director for Tanzania,
Burundi, Malawi and Somalia based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Prior to taking up this role this role, Bella held the position of World Bank Country
Director for Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, based in Nairobi, Kenya from 2011 to
2015. Before joining the Bank in 2011, Bella served in various leadership positions in
the UK Department for International Development (DFID). From 2009 – 2011, she was
Head of Governance Policy in DFID. She provided leadership to a number of
international policy processes at the OECD, as well as leading policy development on
governance and fragile states policy within DFID. Bella served as the Head of DFID
Nepal after a similar stint as Head of DFID Vietnam. Prior to that, she spent seven years
with DFID as an adviser on poverty and social issues in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
She has played a leadership role for the UK government and internationally on policies
to promote state-building and peace building, championing aid effectiveness and southsouth collaboration.
Bella has proven ability to establish credible and effective partnerships with diverse
stakeholders. She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Development from the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Hassan Zaman, Director of OPSPQ, World Bank
Hassan Zaman is currently Director, Operations Policy and Quality in OPCS. He joined
the World Bank as a Young Professional in 1998 followed by country economist
positions in Africa and South Asia and Lead Economist in the central Poverty Reduction
group. Between 2011 and 2014 he was the Chief Economist and Senior Adviser to the
Governor at the Central Bank in Bangladesh. Prior to joining the World Bank, Hassan
worked for BRAC in Bangladesh for three years. Hassan has a PhD in Economics from
the University of Sussex and an MSc and BSc in Economics from the London School of
Economics.
Melaku Kifle, Director, Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, Ethiopia
Melaku Kifle is a qualified Program/Project Management and Public Finance
Specialist with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics. His career spans
over three decades with extensive professional work experience in the areas of:
Program/Project Management, public finance, development planning, budgeting,
public investment, policy analysis, expenditure management & control, with direct
supervisory responsibilities for technical and administrative staff.
Kenneth Mugambe, Director, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic
Development, Uganda
Mr. Kenneth Mugambe has 14 years working experience in planning, public
expenditure management, public sector budgeting, macroeconomic
management and public administration. He has worked as Principal Economist
responsible for the Budget Execution and Evaluation Section of the Budget Policy
and Evaluation Department in the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic
Development. He was a member of a Task Force that developed the export
competitiveness strategy for Uganda. Mr. Mugambe is Director Budget at
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
Kennedy Nyachiro, Chief Economist, The National Treasury, Kenya
Mr. Kennedy Nyakundi Nyachiro, is a Chief Economist/World Bank Division/Policy
Unit at The National Treasury, Public Debt Management Directorate, Resources
Mobilization Department. He has over 20 years' experience in Strategic Planning,
management of rural development work as well as preparation of National
Development Plans, District Development Plans, budgeting, Monitoring and
Evaluation of development projects. He also headed UN Division where he
implemented projects that create impact to the communities.
Gayle Martin, Program Leader, Tanzania, World Bank
GAYLE MARTIN is a development economist at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank
in 1997, she has worked in East and Southern Africa, South Asia as well as East Asia. She
is the Program Leader for human development and agriculture covering Tanzania,
Burundi, Malawi, and Somalia. She led the Service Delivery Indicators Program and prior
to that worked at the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group. Her research interests
include public economics, impact evaluation, and the economics of service delivery. She
holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University.
Tiumzghy Berhe, Acting Director, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing,
Ethiopia
Mr. Berhe was graduate of Master of art of Urban management (specialization with
financing infrastructure and management ) Bachelor of Accounting, Diploma in
Banking and Finance as well as Post graduate diploma in finance specialization in
Netherlands. Currently he is working on the Ministry of Urban development and
Housing as Head of project management and acting bureau head of urban good
governance and capacity building
Martin Goga Anyango, Acting Director, Devolution, Ministry of Devolution and
Planning, Kenya
Mr. Anyango has 26 years of experience in the Governance and financial
management of in Local government sector including support to reforms aimed
at improving Good governance service delivery, and institutional strengthening,
in Kenya. He was the coordinator of Kenya Local Government reforms program
whose input contributed to the provisions in the Constitution of Kenya 2010. He
has worked in collaboration with sub-national governments in identifying and
addressing institutional gaps and practices in the former Local Authorities. He
was part of the team implementing defunct Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF),
Local Authority Service delivery Action plans(LASDAP). Mr. Anyango currently
serves as the Ag. Director Capacity Building and Technical Assistance in the
Ministry of Devolution and Planning dealing mainly with capacity building support
to County Governments in Kenya, and currently the coordinator for Kenya
Devolution PforR.
Jacques Sosthène Dingara, Permeant secretary of administrative reform, Ministry of
Civil Service, Burkina Faso
Mr. Dingara is a Director of Financial Services, holder of a Postgraduate Diploma
[Diplôme d'études approfondies DEA] in Public Economics and am an expert on issues
related to governance and institutional reform. He held the following positions listed
in chronological order: Head of the Finance Department in the Office of the Prime
Minister, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer of FEER, and Director of Studies
and Planning at the Ministry of the Public Service. He is currently employed as the
Permanent Secretary of Public Sector Modernization and Good Governance in Burkina
Faso, and serve as the coordinator of the Public Sector Modernization Project (PSMP)
in Burkina Faso.
Gandham Ramana, Program Leader, World Bank
Ramana is a medical doctor with specialization in Public Health and has been with the
Bank for nearly two decades. He has led design and implementation of complex projects
in health including the first PforR operation in Ethiopia. He is currently working as one
of the program Leaders for Kenya Country Management Unit. He has worked in Africa
and South Asia regions of the Bank and also published extensively on health systems
and maternal health.
Mekdim Enkossa, Adviser, Ethiopian Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
Dr. Mekdim Enkossa is currently serving as senior technical assistant to the Federal
Ministry of Health, resource mobilization directorate. Dr. Mekdim has been
working as technical assistant to the ministry of health since 2007. She has worked
in various positions such as supporting the Policy Plan and Finance General
Directorate, in planning, implementation of programs and donor coordination
Octave Semwaga, Ministry of Agriculture, Rwanda
Dr. Octave Semwaga has a PhD in Agricultural Management, a Masters Degree in
Strategic Marketing, a Masters Degree in Banking and Finance, a Post-Graduate
Diploma in Integrated Planning and a Bachelors Degree in Agronomy. Currently he is
the Director General of Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources
and the manager of the Program for Results for the agricultural sector in his home
Country Rwanda.
Namawu Alolo Alhassan, African Development Bank (AfDB)
Dr. Namawu Alolo has over 12 years of international experience in policy and strategy formulation,
operations, research and training in governance, poverty reduction and gender empowerment. Dr. Alolo
worked as a Research Associate for the University of Birmingham and acted as an adviser on anticorruption initiatives for Transparency International and the International Council on Human Rights Policy.
Dr. Alolo has been with the African Development Bank since 2007 where she worked in various capacities;
a socio-economist in the Human Development Department, an Economist in the Nigeria Field office, a
socio-Economist in the African Water Facility and currently as a Principal Strategy Officer at the Strategy
and Policies Department.
Ian Attfield, Department for International Development (DFID)
Ian Attfield has worked extensively on education development initiatives in Africa
and Asia, with a focus on Education Management, Planning and
Information systems. He is currently DFID’s senior education adviser in
Tanzania. He has been the Tanzania in-country lead adviser for the $250m Big
Results Now in Education PforR, financed by the World Bank, DFID and Sweden
since its design in 2013/14.
David Webber, Advisor, World Bank
David Webber was part of the team that designed the PforR instrument with a focus on
the guidance for Disbursement Linked Indicators and funds flow. He has been closely
involved in supporting many of the PforR operations which have been prepared in all
regions. His experience with the Bank includes several years working on projects in West
Africa including some the first Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAps). He was also part of
the team which developed and negotiated the World Bank and United Nations Fiduciary
Principles Accord for Crisis and Emergency Situations and has worked on several fragile
state operations.
Imad Saleh, Operations Advisor, World Bank
Imad Saleh is currently Operations advisor in OPCS. He is currently the Program for
Results team leader. He joined the Bank in 2000 and worked in Middle East and North
Africa, East Asia, Latin America and is currently based In Washington. Prior to joining the
Bank, he worked in the public and private sector in Lebanon. Imad has a BSc in Civil
engineering and MSc in Business Administration.
Rajat Narula, Lead Financial Management Specialist, World Bank
Rajat Narula works as a Lead Financial Management Specialist in Operation Policy and
Country Services Department of World Bank. Rajat has worked with the Bank for over
eighteen years in South Asia Region, Controllers and East Asia and Pacific region. He is
a chartered accountant and a certified internal auditor. He works on fiduciary aspects
of PforR operations.
Alege Abolaji Atolagbe-Suleiman
Mr. Suleiman the Honorable Comissioner for Health kwara state and a former
commissioner for commerce and cooperarives also a former member governing
council kwara state polythecnic Ilorin and a former staff of federal ministry of
health HQ Abuja.