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Indermit Gill (Opening Remarks)

Indermit Gill is Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions at the World Bank. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. Gill worked at the World Bank from 1993 to 2016, where his assignments included Director of Development Policy in Development Economics, chief economist for Europe and Central Asia, staff director for the 2009 World Development Report on Economic Geography, acting chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, and Principal Country Economist for Brazil. He has a Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics, and a B.A. in economics from St. Stephen¡¯s College, University of Delhi.

Ms Erica Gerretsen (Remarks)

Erica Gerretsen holds a Master in Business Administration from Universit¨¦ Paris Dauphine and a Master in Urban Planning and Local Administration of Sciences Po in Paris. She has been working for the European Commission since 1995, in external relations. She is a French and Dutch national. She has been posted in EU Delegations in Slovenia prior to accession and in Benin as Economic advisor. She has been working in the European Commission Directorate General in charge of international development cooperation (DG DEVCO) since 2003, mostly on Africa. She has been deputy Head of Unit for West Africa in 2012 and then became Head of Unit of the Central Africa region in 2013. She shortly led the Unit in charge of financing for development and development effectiveness in 2016. In 2016, she was appointed Head of Unit in DEVCO A4 "Budget Support, Public Finance Management and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation". In 2021, she was the Acting Director for the newly established Directorate in charge of "Sustainable Finance, Jobs and Growth, an Economy that works for the People" of DG INTPA for International Partnerships. She is currently Head of Unit in DG INTPA E1 "Macro-economic Analysis, Fiscal Policies and Budget Support".

Vinay Sharma (Moderator)

Vinay Sharma is a Senior Advisor at the World Bank. Vinay has over thirty years of experience, much of which has been at senior leadership positions responsible for policy formulation, project management, developing strategic alliances and implementation of reforms. He was the Global Director for the EFI Governance Procurement Unit from June 2017 to 2020. Before joining the World Bank, Vinay was the Director of the African Development Bank¡¯s (AfDB) Procurement and Fiduciary Services Department. He worked on procurement, financial management, and anti-corruption at the AfDB for 14 years, and handled a wide range of broad public sector governance and management issues, including ¡®hands-on¡¯ review of the AfDB¡¯s most complex and challenging procurement transactions. He was responsible for formulating and bringing to the Board¡¯s approval a new procurement policy for the AfDB, a process that included extensive consultations with member countries, MDBs, professional organizations representing contractors, suppliers and consultants, NGOs, CSOs and internally within AfDB. Vinay also served as Head of Operations and Management at the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in India and worked over 16 years in various capacities at Indian Railways and with two large state-owned enterprises in the infrastructure sector. This exposure and experience provided him with first-hand knowledge of procurement from a borrower or beneficiary standpoint. Vinay is a Civil Engineer by training.

Omar H. Tiwana (Presenter)

Since 2014, Omar has been an international consultant for several multilateral development banks (MDBs), including African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank. He is also currently advising the International Law Institute, where he has lectured from time to time on MDB procurement policy and practice. From 1995 to 2013, he was a full-time staff member at ADB, retiring as Lead Procurement Specialist. His publications at ADB included Trade & Procurement: Effective Public Purchasing & Market Access (with Simon Evernet), SME Development: Government Procurement & Inclusive Growth, and Strategic Importance of Public Procurement (with Gustavo Piga). Prior to ADB, Omar worked as a project finance attorney with Citibank N.A. and American Express Bank, as well as with international law firms, with particular focus on South Asia and China. He is a member of the California Bar. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree in Law from Northwestern University, School of Law, and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Chicago. Although born in San Francisco, California, he now resides permanently in Manila, Philippines.

Sumir Lal is Director of Regional Communications in the External Affairs Vice Presidency of the World Bank, heading a unit that provides communication services for the World Bank¡¯s regional departments. He is a firm believer in transparency and accountability and the role strategic communications can play in advancing development outcomes.. Sumir played a an important role in the review of the World Bank¡¯s Environmental and Social Framework and implementation of its Access to Information Policy. He pioneered the use of political economy analysis in project design and analytical work during his time in the Bank's New Delhi office in the early 2000s. Prior to joining the World Bank, Sumir was an award-winning journalist in India. He holds an advanced degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and has published a number of papers on the political economy of reform.

Edward Olowo-Okere (Concluding Remarks)

Ed Olowo-Okere, a Nigerian national with three decades of experience working on governance issues around the world, leads the World Bank¡¯s Public Sector and Financial Management team in the Governance Global Practice. This group is focused on helping countries build capable, effective, accountable, transparent, and inclusive institutions that deliver citizen-centric services, facilitate private-sector growth, and build trust in Government. Mr. Olowo-Okere joined the World Bank in 1998 and has held various positions in operations, including Director of Governance overseeing Africa, MENA and ECA regions, Senior Advisor in the Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions practice group, and Director of the Core Operational Services Department in the Africa region. Before joining the Bank, Ed held public- and private-sector positions in Nigeria, Britain, and New Zealand.

Christiaan (Chrik) Poortman (Panelist)

Christiaan (Chrik) Poortman is Senior Advisor at Transparency International (TI) which is a global coalition against corruption. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST). CoST is a global multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in construction of public infrastructure. Mr. Poortman is a member of the Board of the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) which supports citizens and civil society organizations around the world in their fight against corruption in the public sector. Mr. Poortman is a member of the Board of the Coalition for Integrity (C4I) which is a US-based anti-corruption agency. Mr. Poortman was until 2010 the Director of Global Programmes at Transparency International Secretariat (TI-S) in Berlin ¨C managing and guiding TI¡¯s programme of global priorities in its fight against corruption. Until 2006 Mr Poortman was working at the World Bank in Washington DC as Regional Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa. Before that, he was Country Director for South East Europe during which time he oversaw the World Bank¡¯s assistance programs in the Balkans, including the post-war reconstruction activities in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo. Much of Mr. Poortman¡¯s early career at the World Bank was devoted to Sub-Saharan Africa in a number of different assignments, including as the World Bank¡¯s Country Manager in Zimbabwe. Before joining the World Bank, Mr. Poortman worked as an economist in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Swaziland.

Caroline Nicholas (Panelist)

Caroline Nicholas is Head of Technical Assistance and Senior Legal Officer at the International Trade Law Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (the UNCITRAL Secretariat). She has previously served as Secretary to UNCITRAL¡¯s Working Groups I and III, leading UNCITRAL¡¯s work on Procurement and PPPs, Investor-State Dispute Settlement and Online Dispute Resolution. Caroline leads UNCITRAL¡¯s work in public procurement reform, and publishes papers and teaches on public procurement at the post-graduate level in several UK and European universities. Prior to joining UNCITRAL, she was an Investigator in the United Nation¡¯s Office of Internal Oversight Services, handled Kuwaiti Government claims at the United Nations Compensation Commission, and practised as a solicitor in commercial law and banking and insolvency litigation in the City of London and Hong Kong. She has Masters¡¯ degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (Oxford, UK) and Public Procurement Law and Policy (Nottingham, UK).

Mr. Mamman Muhammadu Ahmadu (Panelist)

Mr. Mamman Muhammadu Ahmadu is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria with BSc honours in Quantity Surveying and also holds a master¡¯s in project management from the prestigious University of Reading, UK. Until his appointment as the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), he was the Principal Partner of Ahmadu & Partners, where he had over 40 years of successful professional practice in the private sector, which contributed immensely to the built industry and the Nigerian nation at large. Mr. Mamman Ahmadu is an erudite scholar (having lectured in A.B.U., Zaria) and a thoroughbred professional with vast experience and membership of a number of professional bodies both local and international. His wealth of experience is being brought to bear in his current capacity as the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement, in which his leadership strides in steering the ongoing Public Procurement Reforms in the country earned the organization a global Government Innovation Award in Open Contracting in 2017 ¨C an award made by the Open Contracting Partnership in Washington DC, USA in recognition of BPP¡¯s introduction of innovation to ensure transparency and value for money in public procurement.

Arianna Legovini (Panelist)

Arianna Legovini built and leads the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) group of the World Bank, The purpose of this unit is to use research to improve development practice and policy outcomes. Since joining the Bank in 2004, she has worked to understand and develop the institutions (incentives and processes) required to engage researchers, operational staff and policymakers in improving the quality in the design and implementation of development projects. In 2004-2008, working with like-minded partners, the ideas were put in action with the creation of the Africa Impact Evaluation initiative and its programs in education, HIV, malaria, community development, agriculture and private sector. In 2009, she imported Africa-grown lessons, processes and programs into the global impact evaluation program. By 2013, with core funding from UK Aid, she designed i2i (impact evaluation to development impact) to support the expansion of the approach across many institutional partners and across under-evaluated sectors representing the majority of development aid, including infrastructure, fragility and conflict, public sector governance, and natural resource management sectors.

Snezana Mitrovic (Panelist)

Snezana B. Mitrovic is a Serbian national, she joined the World Bank in 1995 and has held various positions in the Bank. As a Practice Manager, her priorities is to: (i) manage the procurement work-program for the EAP Region covering four Country Management Units (CMU) groupings (1) Indonesia, Timor-Leste; (2) Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea; (3) Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand; and (4) Singapore, including overseeing procurement fiduciary aspects and risk management, and leading the policy dialogue for the development and implementation of strategies for national procurement reforms; (ii) advance the Bank¡¯s strategic agenda on procurement through promotion of global public goods, with a focus on procurement and interlinkages with openness and strengthening of related institutions; and (iii) actively contribute to, and shape, the collective leadership of the SIP-EAP team, including building strong links with Country Management Units and clients in the Region.