Expert Group Meeting on Public Debt and Sustainable Financing in Asia and the Pacific

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. He oversees ESCAP’s substantive programmes on finance, trade, energy, transport, environment, natural disasters, social development, and statistics all in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He also coordinates ESCAP’s UN inter-agency work.

Mr. Zahedi has worked for the United Nations in Kenya, Mexico, Europe and Thailand. He holds a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA, and a BSc degree in Economics & Geography (1st class) from University College London.

Mrs. Sherine El Sharkawy holds a BA degree on Economics, Sep. 1986 – Jun. 1990, The American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. 

MSc in Finance and Investment, Sep. 1997 – Jul. 1998, University of Exeter, United Kingdom.

Member of the Association of Graduates from British Universities in Egypt, Member of the German Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Egypt & Member of the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association in Egypt.

From June 1991 to August 1997, Manager, Credit Department, The Commercial International Bank (Previously the Chase National Bank), then Director & Head of Direct Investment. The Commercial International Bank in Cairo from August 1998 to June 2007, then Senior General Manager – Corporate Finance – Ahli United Bank (Egypt), March 2008 – Dec. 2009. She is currently Deputy Minister of Finance for Economic Affairs.

Mr. Barry Eichengreen is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at U.C. Berkeley since 1987. He previously taught at Harvard University from 1980-1986.

He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London, England). In 1997-98 he was Senior Policy Advisor at the International Monetary Fund. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (class of 1997). He was President of the Economic History Association during the 2010-2011 academic year.

He has held Guggenhim and Fulbright Fellowships and been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto) and the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin). From 2004 to 2020 he served as convener of the Bellagio Group of academics and officials. He is a regular monthly columnist for Project Syndicate.

Mr. Hamza Ali Malik is currently the Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division (MPFD) at UNESCAP. He leads the team responsible for analyzing economic conditions and emerging development challenges in Asia and the Pacific economies and assesses potential policy options and financing strategies that can support them in their pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Before joining the UNESCAP in 2014, Hamza worked as the Director of Monetary Policy Department at the central bank of Pakistan (SBP). He graduated from McMaster University with a Ph.D. in economics in 2002.

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, a national of Pakistan, served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and as the tenth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific from 2014 to 2018. She also served as the United Nations Sherpa for the G20.

Formerly the Secretary-General's Senior Advisor on Economics and Finance, and Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, she led the UN-wide coordination of the post-2015 development agenda and related policy and normative work, including supporting work on the Sustainable Financing Strategy.

Dr. Akhtar served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Pakistan, and as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. In her capacity as Governor, Dr. Akhtar was also the Chairperson of the Central Bank Board and its affiliates, as well as a Governor of the IMF. During her term of office, she was recognized for the success of the Bank and won two consecutive awards as Asia's Best Central Bank Governor from Emerging Markets and from the Banker’s Trust. In 2008, The Wall Street Journal Asia also recognized her as one of the top ten professional women of Asia.

Dr. Akhtar has had a long-standing career with the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). She served in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for almost 15 years, rising through the ranks from Senior Economist, to attaining the highest professional positions, including as Special Senior Advisor to the President of ADB, and as the Bank’s Director-General of the South-East Asia region. During the Asian financial crisis, she also served as the ADB Coordinator to the APEC Finance Ministers, providing analytical support in a number of economic and social areas for crisis prevention and mitigation, while also leading engagement with the Bank for International Settlement and other standard-setting bodies.

She has also served as a member of the Pakistan Economic Advisory Committee and of the Governing Council of the Pakistan Statistics Bureau. In addition, Dr. Akhtar has advised development agencies on the operationalization of Pakistan’s New Economic Growth Framework, and has also worked on PPP policy frameworks and governance issues. Dr. Akhtar was a post-doctoral degree US Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University, holds a PhD in Economics from Scotland's Paisley College of Technology, as well as a Master’s in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, and an MSc in Economics from Quaid-e-Azam University, in Islamabad.

Ms. Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol obtained an L.L.B (1st Class Honors, Gold Medal) from Chulalongkorn University, Barrister at Law from the Institute of Legal Education Thai Bar Association, an L.L.M (International Business Law) from Harvard Law School, Cambridge Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, USA. Prior to this appointment, she had served in several key positions at the Ministry of Justice, including Director-General of the Legal Execution Department, Director-General of the Probation Department, Inspector, Deputy Spokesperson, Deputy Director of the Office of Justice Affairs, Deputy Director-General of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, and Director of Dhanarak Asset Development Co., Ltd.

Member of the Public Sector Development Commission, the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, Director of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Director of the Law Reform Committee, the Office of the Council of State, and Advisor to the Committee on Economics, Monetary and Finance, the Senate.       

Mr. Ulrich Volz is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Development Institute, a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig. At SOAS, he previously served as Head of the Department of Economics and Member of the University’s Executive Board. Ulrich is Chairman of the Japan Economy Network and Co-editor-in-chief of the Asia Europe Journal. Ulrich is a director of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment and serves on the Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee of the German Federal Government and the advisory panel of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for German Net Zero (GFANZ). He is a co-chair of the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery initiative and serves on the advisory committee for the Climate/SDGs Debt Swap Mechanism of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. He is a member of the CEPR Sustainable Finance Research and Policy Network and the World Bank’s Green Recovery Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Working Group.

Ulrich was Banque de France Chair at EHESS in Paris, and also taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, and the Institute of Developing Economies in Tokyo. He spent stints working at the European Central Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, ECB, Bank Indonesia, and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Ulrich was part of the UN Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and of the NGFS-INSPIRE Study Group on Biodiversity and Financial Stability. He served on the Advisory Council of the Asian Development Bank Institute and has acted as an advisor to several governments, central banks, international organisations and development agencies on matters of macroeconomic policy, sustainable finance and development.

Jean-Paul Adam is the Director for Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Prior to taking on this role, he served in the Government of the Republic of Seychelles in several Cabinet positions. He was Minister of Health from 2016 to 2019. He served as Minister of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy from 2015 to 2016 where he negotiated a debt for climate change adaptation swap and launched the process for Seychelles to become the first issuer of a Blue Bond. Between 2010 and 2014, he was Seychelles’ Minister of Foreign Affairs, where he advocated for countries to embrace the concept of the Blue Economy, to improve sustainability for island and coastal countries. Before entering the Cabinet, between 2005 and 2009, he occupied several senior roles in the Office of the President of the Republic of Seychelles including Director General for presidential affairs, Principal Secretary for the Office of the President and Secretary of state in the presidency.

He started his career as a career diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2001 and 2004. He is a holder of a Masters in International Political Economy form the University of Manchester (UK) and a BA in English Literature and French from the University of Sheffield (UK).

Mr. Abbas is a sovereign debt expert, with over two decades of experience acquired as an academic, fixed income desk, country debt manager, and IMF staff member. As an academic at Oxford, he wrote about the role of domestic debt markets in economic growth; and later, on the historical patterns and dynamics of public debt. He has also recently co-edited Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners, which was published jointly by Oxford University Press and the IMF in 2019. As a fixed income broker in Pakistan, he analyzed and advanced the development of the country’s nascent bond market in the late 1990s. As a debt manager in Tanzania’s finance ministry, he lead-developed the country’s national debt strategy in 2002. And at the IMF, he has been closely involved in several high-debt country cases, including Ireland (2010), Mongolia (2017), Jordan (2020-22), Ukraine (2015) and Argentina (2018). He was also the IMF’s liaison to the Paris Club during 2015 to 2019. Mr. Abbas is currently serving as an advisor in the IMF’s European Department.

Dr. Debapriya (Deb) Bhattacharya, a macroeconomist and public policy analyst, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, where he was its first Executive Director.

Earlier he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Had been a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to WTO and UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna, President of UNCTAD Governing Board, Special Advisor on LDCs to the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Coordinator of LDC Group of countries in the UN System in Geneva.

Currently a member of the United Nations’ Committee for Development Policy (CDP).

Did his Masters and PhD in Economics from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy, Moscow. Later did his post-doctoral research at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. He was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), Washington DC.

Held a number of short-term visiting positions including at the UN University Institute of New Technology (UNU-INTECH), Institute of Developing Economics (IDE), Tokyo and University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Has undertaken joint research, among others, with Harvard Business School, University of Manchester, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London and a large number of research organisations from South Asia.

Undertook consultancy assignments on behalf of international and bilateral development agencies in various developing countries from Asia, Africa and Central America. Member of various high-level national consultation committees and commissions. Had been, among others, member of Monitoring Advisory Group of the Global Partnership of Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), managed by UNDP and OECD.

Member of governing bodies of several leading institutions (including BRAC International) and editorial advisory boards of reputed journals (including Oxford Development Studies, South Asia Economic Journal).

Founding Chair of the Southern Voice international network of think tanks – a network of more than 50 think tanks from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Under the auspices of Southern Voice, led the pioneering multi-country studies on shaping the 2030 Agenda, data deficits of SDG monitoring, and early signals of SDG implementation. Conceptualised the project and led the research team for the first Southern Voice Report on the State of SDGs (2019) Team leader of the study titled Quest for Inclusive Transformation of Bangladesh. Who Not to be Left Behind (2017).

Also chairs the LDC IV Monitor – an alliance of development organisations including OECD Development Centre and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Leading a number of global studies focussed on impact of COVID-19 on LDCs and incentives for graduating (LDCs). Contributed to a number of studies in this area conducted by the WTO, UN-ESCAP and the Commonwealth secretariat.

A civil society activist, founding Convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh – network of about 150 development organisations and private sector bodies. A media personality in Bangladesh and a commentator on international media.

Recent edited volumes include Bangladesh’s Graduation from the Least Developed Countries Group: Pitfalls and Promises, Routledge (2018) and Southern Perspectives on the Post-2015 International Development Agenda, Routledge, London (2017). Other recent publications include Rethinking Development Effectiveness: Perspectives from Global South. Occasional Paper No 59, Southern Voice (2020).

Mr. Sean Craig is the Macroeconomic Advisor at the IMF’s Capacity Development Office in Thailand (CDOT) where he manages macroeconomic and financial Capacity Development programs in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Sean has worked for 22 years at the IMF after spending 4 years at the Bank for International Settlements and 10 years in the Federal Reserve Board’s International Division. At the IMF, he worked most recently in the Asia and Pacific Department, he worked on the Regional Economic Outlook and has worked on surveillance and programs in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and the Solomon Islands. He also served as the IMF’s Resident Representative in Hong Kong SAR in 2010-12. Before that, he also worked in the IMF’s Research; Strategy, Policy and Review; and Monetary and Capital Markets Departments. In the latter, he spent 5 years working on the Global Financial Stability Report, including several doing financial market surveillance in the IMF’s London Office. His research has focused on capital flow management and monetary policy, including most recently “Facing the Tides: Managing Capital Flows in Asia” (2019) and “Flattening the Insolvency Curve: Promoting Corporate Restructuring in Asia and the Pacific in the Post-C19 Recovery” (2021). Sean received a Ph.D. and Masters of Political Economy from Boston University and a B.A. from the Claremont Colleges in California.

Dr. Pisit Puapan is the Director of Macroeconomic Analysis Division under the Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance, Thailand. In this current position, he is responsible for economic review, monitoring, forecast and macroeconomic and fiscal policy analysis under the Ministry of Finance. He regularly meets with IMF and credit rating agencies to hold policy discussion and dialogue on behalf of the Ministry.

Since joining the government in 1998, he has been delegated to work on various assignments within the Ministry. His first assignment was with the Public Debt Management Office responsible for bilateral loan negotiation. In 2001, he performed analyses on financial sector and trade liberalization under the ASEAN and APEC frameworks. He was the primary official responsible for the implementation of ASEAN+3 Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) under the Chiang Mai Initiative. During 2003-2005, Dr. Pisit was assigned to Government Expenditures Policy Section, Bureau of Fiscal Policy, and handled the preparatory process of the Thai government’s annual budget.

Mr. Juan Pradelli is a global expert in macroeconomic analysis, fiscal policy, government debt management, and public financial management (PFM), with extensive experience working for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Government Agencies such as Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning. He is a former Senior Economist at the World Bank (2010-2016) and the Inter-American Development Bank (2016-2017). He served as an independent advisor at Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (2007-2009) and Argentina’s Ministry of Economy (2001).

Currently, Mr Pradelli works as an independent expert for various IFIs and Government Agencies. He participates in projects with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Financing (MCDF) sponsored by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Mr Pradelli also collaborates with private consulting firms, including Bain & Company Middle East in Saudi Arabia and Cardno-Prospera (Australia Indonesia Partnership for Economic Development) in Indonesia. Mr Pradelli regularly delivers presentations, trainings, and workshops to corporate executives, government officials, and IFIs’ economists—particularly in the areas of macroeconomic and fiscal trends in global and regional outlooks, fiscal and debt management, and economic modelling and forecasting. Mr Pradelli has published articles on debt policy, debt sustainability, and economic growth. He holds Master degrees from the University of Warwick (UK) and University Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina), and pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Tor Vergata (Italy).

Mr. Thomas Rookmaaker is a Senior Director in Fitch’s Sovereigns Group, which he joined in 2013. He has covered a range of sovereigns on the Asia-Pacific team in Hong Kong, and is currently Head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns. Before joining Fitch, Thomas worked at the central bank of the Netherlands for 13 years in the areas of economic policy, financial stability and financial markets. Between 2006 and 2008, Thomas was Advisor to the Dutch Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. Thomas holds an M.A in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, as well as an M.A. in South Asian Studies from Leiden University.

Areas of Expertise:

• Macroeconomic Analysis
• Fiscal and Tax Policy
• Public Financial Management

Ms. Ravisara Hataiseree joined AMRO as an Economist in September 2022. She is responsible for conducting surveillance on regional and member countries with the focus on Thailand and Lao PDR. She also takes part in the fiscal surveillance activities of the ASEAN+3 member countries.

Prior to joining AMRO, she served Thailand’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) for almost 10 years in the economic and fiscal areas. During her time with the MOF, she was seconded to the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office from August 2020 to August 2022, serving as a member of the Economic Advisory Committee to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy. Before that, she had a brief stint with the country’s leading economic development organizations of the so-called the Office of the National and Social Development Council and the Export-Import Bank of Thailand.

Ms. Hataiseree has a wide range of experiences in tax and fiscal policy analysis, public financial management, and macro-fiscal analysis. While working for the MOF as a Senior Tax Economist, she has been involved in many different job roles, ranging from conducting in-depth studies on fiscal policy issues to testifying before the Parliament on the design of tax and economic policies and tax reforms. Ms. Hataiseree also has extensive experience in representation and high-level negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF.

Ms. Hataiseree has also gained significant experience in working with the World Bank in Washington, DC. While there, she worked with Doing Business team to analyze and assess the business enabling environment with particular reference to country-specific challenges and opportunities. Ms. Hataiseree has been a part-time lecturer at many universities in Thailand and was also a speaker at various fora.

Ms. Hataiseree holds a master’s degree in Economic and Financial Policy (with merit) from Cornell University. She was a recipient of the Royal Thai Government Scholarship, while working towards a master’s degree in the U.S. and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (International Program) at Thammasat University. Ms. Hataiseree also earned a law degree from Sukhothai University in Thailand. She has written several academic papers along with a book chapter appearing in the Association of the Thai Government Scholarship Student’s 2015 Annual Report.

Ms. Margarita Debuque-Gonzales is a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). She writes in the areas of macroeconomics, monetary and financial economics, and development. Her more recent work has focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on various aspects of the Philippine economy, including on debt sustainability. She obtained her PhD from the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE) in 2006. Prior to joining PIDS in 2020, she was an associate professor of UPSE, where she managed the school’s financial economics program and headed the UnionBank Center for Financial and Monetary Economics.

Paul A. Martin is a graduate professional working over the last 10 years within the ASEAN Member States. His spheres of work have included supporting government sectors including public sector finance management, sovereign debt finance, national planning and decentralization with a focus towards planning and budget inclusive of the financing of; national planning agendas, urban centers, and cross border development.

As UNCDFs Senior Regional Technical Advisor Local Transformative Finance (LTF) he has corporate responsibility for UNCDF LTF country portfolios for local economic development finance. This role that includes; (i) development and management of effective client relations, (ii) the development and management of projects, (iii) the identification of investment pipelines with especial focus on PPPs, (iv) the provision of associated financing solutions through UNCDFs grants, loans and credit guarantee facilities, and (v)UNCDF portfolio development in ASEAN and the Pacific.

In this context Pauls’ role is to develop and maintain extensive ASEAN networks in and with; governments, capital market participants, the private sector, international development agencies, and also with various regional government and non-government development reserach orientated institutions (i.e. ASEAN, EIRA, JETHRO IDE).

His portfolio of countries includes all ASEAN Member States and + 3 countries and the Pacific Islands. This work also extends to engage directly with the ASEAN Secretariat and the APEC Secretariat.

Paul owns extensive experience working directly with; national and sub national governments in the ASEAN region at senior levels, development partners and the private sector. As UNCDFs ASEAN focal local government and local financing representative he is responsible for UNCDF’s LDFP principle ASEAN regional SGAC program that facilitates South-South and triangular SMART and Green commercial and developmental investments into the ASEAN cities.

Finally, Paul has worked in various global locations that include East Africa, South East Asia including China, South Asia, Balkans, Eastern Europe (former Soviet Union), and the Middle East. Having, throughout his international career worked for international agencies and private sector companies.

Mr. Arshad Zaman is a well-known Pakistani economist with over fifty years of policy analysis and advisory experience. He has served as Chief Economist of the Government of Pakistan in Islamabad and earlier as a Senior Economist with the World Bank in Washington, DC. After leaving the government, Mr. Zaman was managing a private consulting firm until 2005. Since then, he has been engaged in independent studies and advisory activities. His current areas of interest are governance, public sector management, and economic strategies and policies.

Lars Jensen is a macroeconomist in the Strategic Policy Team of the United Nations Development Progamme (UNDP) based in New York. Lars’ work focuses on debt, public finances, the broader field of sustainable finance, and decarbonization transition costs and benefits in resource-dependent developing economies.

Lars has seven years of working experience with the United Nations from East Africa and New York. Prior to joining the UN Lars worked in Denmark’s leading economic think-tanks (Kraka) and economic consultancy (Copenhagen Economics) focusing on the links between financial sector regulation and the macroeconomy.

Lars holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics in Administration from the University of Aalborg, Denmark, and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Benno Ferrarini is Principal Economist at the Asian Development Bank’s Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of London and has nearly three decades of experience in research and policy advice, half of which with the ADB, where he has led technical assistance and research projects in the areas of public finance, international trade, and disaster impact analysis. 

Ms. Delphine Moretti is Regional Advisor, Public Financial Management (PFM), for Southeast Asia. She is based in Bangkok, at the IMF Capacity Development Office in Thailand (CDOT), since January 2021.

In this capacity, she is leading several capacity development projects in the region, focusing on fiscal planning and budget frameworks and functions.

Prior to this, Ms. Moretti served in the IMF Headquarters and in the OECD, where she assisted advanced, emerging and developing countries in introducing budgetary reforms. She led the OECD Senior Officials Network on Financial Management and Reporting and had a leadership role in research and analytical work of the network on fiscal risks and balance sheet management, as well as on PFM digitalisation.

Ms. Moretti previously held senior positions in the French Ministry of Finance and Supreme Audit Institution. She taught public financial management at the French School of Government.

Mr. Sean Craig is the Macroeconomic Advisor at the IMF’s Capacity Development Office in Thailand (CDOT) where he manages macroeconomic and financial Capacity Development programs in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Sean has worked for 22 years at the IMF after spending 4 years at the Bank for International Settlements and 10 years in the Federal Reserve Board’s International Division. At the IMF, he worked most recently in the Asia and Pacific Department, he worked on the Regional Economic Outlook and has worked on surveillance and programs in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and the Solomon Islands. He also served as the IMF’s Resident Representative in Hong Kong SAR in 2010-12. Before that, he also worked in the IMF’s Research; Strategy, Policy and Review; and Monetary and Capital Markets Departments. In the latter, he spent 5 years working on the Global Financial Stability Report, including several doing financial market surveillance in the IMF’s London Office. His research has focused on capital flow management and monetary policy, including most recently “Facing the Tides: Managing Capital Flows in Asia” (2019) and “Flattening the Insolvency Curve: Promoting Corporate Restructuring in Asia and the Pacific in the Post-C19 Recovery” (2021). Sean received a Ph.D. and Masters of Political Economy from Boston University and a B.A. from the Claremont Colleges in California.

Mr. Sudyumna Dahal is a Regional Economist (Public Finance) at the UNDP Regional Hub for Asia and the Pacific. In this role, he provides advisory support on public finance, macroeconomic issues, and inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific countries covered by the Hub. He has more than 15 years of professional and academic experience working on international development in various countries worldwide, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Nepal, India, China, Pakistan, Lao PDR and the Pacific Island countries. He has held multiple technical and leadership positions, engaging with governments, development partners and civil society.

Previously, he worked at the World Bank in Washington DC, Africa and South Asia. He has authored several flagship reports and has contributed to regional/global knowledge products such as South Asia Economic Focus and Global Economic Prospects of the World Bank.

He has an MA in International Economics from  Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). He is currently completing his PhD at the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Australian National University (ANU). 

Ms. Lyn I. Javier is the Assistant Governor of the Policy and Specialized Supervision Sub-Sector (PSSSS) under the Financial Supervision Sector of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). She oversees the supervisory policy and data departments of the BSP as well as the supervision of specialized areas specifically money laundering, information technology, treasury and trust operations. 

Ms. Javier is the designated BSP representative to the Basel Consultative Group, the Executives’ Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks Working Group on Banking Supervision, and the Network for Greening the Financial System-Workstream on Scaling Up Green Finance. 

At the domestic level, Ms. Javier is involved interagency committees and working groups related to the supervision of financial institutions and the promotion of sustainability agenda. She also represents the BSP in the accounting and auditing standard setting bodies in the Philippines.