1818 Society

Critical Minerals
2024-10-08 09:00 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | Virtual – Webex Meetings
Energy Thematic Group event
A range of ‘Critical Minerals’, such as copper, nickel, lithium, cobalt and various rare earths, have taken on heightened importance for the transition to low carbon energy. These materials are key inputs for the manufacture of climate-friendly technologies such as solar and wind energy and batteries for stationary and mobile applications.
The presentation by Michael Stanley, World Bank Extractives Lead based on Hanoi, will examine the role of Critical Minerals (CM) in the energy transition and the various geological factors underlying their supply. Also covered will be the increasing geo-political concerns regarding concentration and potential physical and economic disruption of CM supply chains, as well as recent measures to counter these trends.
Speaker:
Michael Stanley, Lead Oil and Gas Specialist, Infra Energy Extractive Industry. Michael has forty years of mining sector experience across North and South America, Europe & Central Asia, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia / Pacific regions. He assists governments in development of critical minerals, strengthening institutional governance for a competitive and predictable investment climate. His areas of expertise include shaping public / private partnerships for supporting infrastructure, fostering resilient mineral supply chains for economic growth and the energy transition, and leading the World Bank’s global Just Transition away from coal mining initiative.
Michael has i) a Bachelor of Science in Geology, ii) Master of Science in Mining Exploration and Development, and iii) Doctorate in Mineral Resource Economics / Mining. He is a frequent speaker in global forums and is co-editor of the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Source Book, first-edition print version (2018). Michael is a dual American / Canadian citizen based in Asia.
The presentation will be followed by Q&A and discussion.
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On October 8th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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The State of Road Asset Management
2024-09-19 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid: MC3-850 & Webex
Transport Thematic Group event
Road transport is and will remain the main transport mode in most – if not all – countries for the foreseeable future. While a more reasonable and organized use of cars and trucks is certainly desirable, road infrastructures are the basic links between people within cities and regions, being the only alternative to access services, goods and jobs for many people. Road infrastructures are also one of the highest – if not the highest – public asset immobilized in most countries, built upon generations. In that context, improving the way this capital asset is managed is essential: in most countries, road infrastructures are at best sparsely managed with a focus on construction while maintenance is generally overlooked. Road asset management starts with good maintenance practices that can contribute to lower substantially the overall cost of managing the road network on a life cycle basis and increase its sustainability and resilience. In turn, this contributes to reduce the cost to operating vehicles and, more broadly, logistics costs, directly contributing to the countries’ competitiveness agenda.
For the past 30 years, a renewed approach to road management has been tested in various countries, often with success, transferring part of the responsibility of the asset management to the private sector, in the form of pluri-annual performance-based contracts paid upon achievement of pre-determined results. Those contracts have demonstrated improving road overall conditions at a fraction of the cost. Experiences worldwide continue confirming the relevance of the approach. Improvement in Public Private Partnership (PPP) regulatory framework and institutional capacity in many countries offer an avenue to more broadly tap on this contractual modality further compounding efficiency gains with contracts of a longer duration and with the mobilization of private capital.
To present and discuss the current state of the topic and those more recent strategies and approaches, on Thursday, September 19, 2024, at 12 noon, we are very fortunate to have (a) Mr. Eric Lancelot, Lead Transport Specialist at the World Bank Transport Unit of the Latin American and Caribbean Region, and Global Lead of the Safe and Resilient Infrastructure Knowledge Group at the World Bank Transport Global Practice; and (b) Mr. Magid Elabyad, Executive Vice-President of the International Road Federation (IRF).
Mr. Eric Lancelot, a French national, joined the World Bank in 2005 and has held various positions as Transport Specialist for Latin America and Europe before joining West Africa as Program Leader of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development between 2015 and 2019, then Central America between 2019 and 2023. He has transport engineer and transport economics degrees from the Ecole National des Travaux Publics de L’Etat and the Universite Paris/Sorbonne, both in France.

Mr. Magid Elabyad, an Egyptian and US national, Mr. Elabyad, is currently the Executive Vice President of the International Road Federation (IRF) based in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. He joined the IRF in December 2004 and was appointed Vice President in November 2023, after holding various positions such as the Director of Global Training Programs. He specializes in national and international transportation and construction industry issues, focusing primarily on Road Asset Management and Road Financing. Mr. Elabyad holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Ohio, awarded in 2015, and a bachelor’s degree in business from George Mason University, awarded in 2001.
Moderator: Cesar Queiroz, Transport TG

Registrations:
In person (MC 3 – 850)
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The Decentralized, Country-focused World Bank: How has the Model fared and has the Time come to Adjust it—To Better Support Global Public Goods? A panel discussion
2024-09-11 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC C3 214 – Webex
WBG History Thematic Group and WBG Library event
Moderator: John Heath (Coordinator, History TG)
Panelists:

Anna Aghumian (leader of a 2022 IEG study on WBG decentralization)
Danny Leipziger (Professor of International Business, George Washington University);
Juergen Zattler (Distinguished Fellow, Center for Global Development & former Executive Director for Germany)

Registrations:
In-Person (MC C3-214)
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On September 11th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Retrospective of Lending for Irrigation: Reflections on 70 years of Bank Experience
2024-09-05 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC8 -300 and Webex
AgFRD TG & Urban and Water TG event
This seminar will comprise a presentation of a recent Bank Discussion Paper “ Retrospective on Lending for Irrigation : 70 years of Bank Experience” authored by Herve Plusquellec, who volunteered to prepare this document on Bank lending to this critical subsector, with suggestions and recommendations on possible solutions to key attendant issues.
This publication is divided into two parts: the first part analyzes trends in the Bank’s lending and ratings of completed projects. It also summarizes several key policies that shaped the irrigation and drainage subsector. A second part is devoted to analyzing the performance of large- and medium-scale irrigation projects. Information on the volume of Bank lending and the ratings of completed projects presented in this document are extracted from Bank data. Statistics on the Bank’s performance in project preparation and implementation reflect the findings of the former Operations Evaluation Department, now the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG).
The presentation based on the publication would be of interest to Bank Agriculture, Environment and Water GP retirees, staff involved in the formulation of country assistance strategies at all levels, as well as to staff, agencies and research and training institutions working on the formulation and implementation of irrigation projects. It is hoped that it will stimulate debate on how to best support the irrigation subsector, moving forward and especially in light of the increasing climate change impacts, water scarcity, and food security challenges seen across the globe.
Presenter: Mr. Herve Plusquellec, former senior water resources and irrigation specialist.
Mr. Herve Plusquellec graduated in hydraulics engineering from the University of Grenoble, France in 1960. He has over 60 years of experience in the field of water resources and irrigation, of which nearly 50 years as Bank staff and then as consultant . He has worked on development projects from three different perspectives: a government-agency in Morocco, an engineering consulting firm in Italy and an international lending agency, the World Bank. He has worked on a wide range of water-related projects throughout the world, in about 40 countries in Asia, Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and Latin America. Since retirement from the World Bank in 1997, he has working as consultant for the World Bank, FAO, Consulting firms and bi-lateral donor agencies such as the Swiss Development Corporation from Switzerland and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, from the USA. During his first years of his long carer with the Office National des Irrigations in Morocco, he got practical experience in design, construction and operation of efficient on-demand large-scale irrigation schemes under automated operation.
Mr. Plusquellec has published on a variety of subjects others than the techniques of water control and canal lining from contribution of irrigation to food security, water rights in traditional irrigation systems and land consolidation in irrigated area. He has advocated improving the performance of existing irrigation systems given that irrigated lands have reached their limits in terms of land and water resources and the over-exploitation of groundwater resources in many countries. Mr. Plusquellec has an exceptional capacity of transferring successful innovations from country to country thanks to his worldwide knowledge of large number of projects that he visited in over 40 countries. For example, he succeeded in the adoption of the North Africa water control technology by the Office du Niger, Mali in the mid- 1980’s, and in the proper use of geosynthetics for major canal lining components in Syrai, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and China.
He is honored to have been nominated by the World Bank for the ICID Prize in 2013 and 2014
Discussant: Kevin Cleaver, AgFRD TG
Moderators: Preeti Ahuja, AgFRD TG and Alex Bakalian, U&W TG
Registrations:
In-person (MC8-300)
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On September 5th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Food is Medicine in Healthcare - Implications for Well-Being, Equity, and Costs
2024-06-27 13:00 - 14:30 | Hybrid: MC 4 – 100 & Webex
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development TG event
This talk will focus on how the evidence and progress in the U.S. on how health systems, researchers, other stakeholders, and policy makers are facilitating the adoption of food is medicine innovations in healthcare. It will focus on the types of and strength of evidence behind different food-based health care system interventions to improve nutrition, health, and health-equity, and potentially reduce costs. The talk will include a discussion of the global implications and applicability for other nations and health systems for creating better structures for nutrition and health.
Speaker:
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, public health scientist, and Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. He is Dean Emeritus and Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Professor of Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, and attending physician in cardiology at Tufts Medical Center. He is a globally recognized leader in the science of nutrition, cardiometabolic diseases, policy, and Food is Medicine, aiming to create the evidence and translation for a food system that is nutritious, equitable, and sustainable. Dr. Mozaffarian has authored nearly 600 scientific publications and is one of the top cited researchers in medicine. He has served in numerous advisory roles, including currently serving on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and his work has been featured in an array of media outlets. Thomson Reuters has named him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.
Dr. Mozaffarian received his B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University, M.D. from Columbia University, and Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard University, and clinical training in internal medicine at Stanford University and in cardiology at the University of Washington. He is married, has three children, and actively trains as a Fourth Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.
Registrations:
In-person (Mc4-100)
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On June 27th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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What can we Learn from Robert McNamara's Lengthy Career as a Manager?
2024-06-13 11:00 - 12:30
1818 Society WBG History TG and WBG Library event
Management and ‘leadership’ roles are often well rewarded, but management is not a widely trusted profession. Business schools often aspire to develop a ‘profession’ of management intended to ‘serve society’, but the academic debate about management has tended to be sceptical of these claims. The career of Robert S. McNamara vividly illustrates this tension. Based on a close study of documentary sources, Leo McCann explores McNamara’s managerial worldview and style of practice. Teaching materials at Harvard Business School show the beginnings of the management accounting techniques that became central to McNamara’s operating style. Archived documents at Ford Motor Company reveal the growing complexity and uncertainty involved in managerial decision-making. Public statements of McNamara as Secretary of Defence provide insights into how such complexity was ‘rationalized’ through techniques such as ‘Planning’ and ‘Programming,’ techniques that subsequently informed McNamara’s approach to managing the World Bank. World Bank documents shed light on staff concerns about how this approach was applied to the Bank’s lending strategy. Leo’s forthcoming book on McNamara’s management style links to broader discussions about the complex and contested roles played by management in contemporary society, posing the question: What makes for good management?
Presenter: Leo McCann, Professor of Management at the University of York, UK. He is currently working on a British Academy funded project into the career history of Robert S. McNamara.
Discussant: Steven Conn, W.E. Smith Professor of History, Miami University and author of Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools (Cornell University Press, 2019)
Moderator: John Heath, Chair, WBG History Thematic Group
If you will attend in person, please RSVP. Venue: MC C3-214
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Attending virtually, please register.
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On June 13th, you can directly join the session by using the link/details below:
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Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals
2024-06-10 09:00 - 10:30 | Webex Meeting
Social and Environment Thematic Group (virtual) Event

Presenter: Paula Caballero, Regional Managing Director for Latin America, The Nature Conservancy, and former Senior Director, Environment and Natural Resources, World Bank
Moderator: Ede Ijjasz, co-chair, Social and Environment Thematic Group
Event Description:
Paula Caballero will present her recent book on the genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Paula iis widely recognized as the lead proponent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which she conceptualized, positioned and negotiated. She also led the agreement to create a technical, science-based group to develop the SDGs which broke completely with UN tradition and make it possible to negotiate framework with concrete, implementable targets. The SDGs have changed how we understand and view development, proposing for the first time a truly universal agenda without the artifice of the distinction between “developed and developing” countries. The SDGs are a revolution in responsibility, enabling not just governments but other stakeholders to engage meaningfully. For this work she has received several awards including the German Sustainability Award in 2019 and the Zayed International Prize for the Environment in 2014 for her contribution to “environmental action leading to positive change”. Click here to see the flyer.
Speaker’s Bio:
Paula Caballero is the Regional Managing Director for Latin America at The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. Paula Caballero has a long history in the field of development, including service as Senior Director at the World Bank where she launched the Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice. Earlier she served as Global Director for Climate at the World Resources Institute where she led the establishment of the NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) Partnership, efforts to ratchet up climate ambition, and work on long-term climate strategies. While serving as Director for Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010-2014, she spearheaded Colombia’s proposal to establish a comprehensive, integrated metric for sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier in her career, she served with the Energy and Environment Unit for Latin America & Caribbean at UNDP. She has also worked with NGOs, academia, media, and the private sector.
Webex details:
Register here
On June 10th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Planning for Future Transit-Oriented Development: Land-Use and Transport Policies for Emerging Cities
2024-06-05 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid: MC3-850 & Webex
Transport Thematic Group (Hybrid) event
Cities account for more than 50 percent of the world’s population and 80 percent of its economic output. The concentration of people in cities is expected to continue through 2050, at which point an estimated 70 percent of the world’s population will reside in cities. Between 2020 and 2050, 2.3 billion people will be added to urban areas, and 90 percent of this increase will take place in Asia and Africa. This rapid urbanization is a pressing global issue, and a common pitfall is to focus only on the challenges faced by the world’s megacities, which neglect the many growing small and mid-sized cities. Notably, about 75% of the world’s urban population lives in settlements of less than 500,000 people–emerging cities. These cities, the most volatile and going through the most rapid change, are often characterized by increasing population, expanding economic activities, and undergoing social, economic, and physical transformations. The development of efficient and sustainable transit systems in these cities is a critical challenge that our research aims to address.
What transport and land-use policies allow emerging cities without existing mass transit to develop into transit-oriented cities supported by low-carbon modes? To address this question, research soon to be published at the World Bank uses the lenses of urban economics and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) literature. It applies theory, derives shared learnings, and examines empirical evidence from both perspectives—ultimately bridging the gap between the two. The research develops a sandbox model to simulate the impacts of land-use regulations on transit ridership. The model shows that public transport ridership increases with increasing plot coverage ratio and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and decreases with increasing setbacks and parking requirements. The sandbox model predicts that increasing or liberalizing the FAR has the largest benefit, followed by increasing the plot coverage ratio. Parking policy also matters because it takes scarce road and housing space. Proximity to arterial roads wide enough to allow public transport vehicles is critical, as shown by Barcelona’s example. The desired pattern resembles Barcelona’s superille plan. This pattern requires transit-friendly land use regulations throughout and not just around transit stations. This pattern will result in a Hierarchically Integrated Transit System (HITS) with several mass transit corridors –from metro to bus rapid transit to multimodal streets that privilege public transport, walking, and biking.
For presenting this topic and providing his views, we are very fortunate to have Mr. Arturo Ardila-Gomez, Lead Transport Economist at the World Bank’s Middle East and Northern Africa Region. The presentation and discussion will take place on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, at 12:00 nn, in room MC-3-850 (with a Webex connection for those who would like to connect remotely). Arturo Ardila-Gomez is the lead transport economist in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region of the World Bank. He was until recently the Global Lead for Urban Mobility at the World Bank’s Transport Global Unit, where he led the Urban Mobility Global Solutions Group at the Bank. He oversees a portfolio of transport projects, primarily in Egypt. He also provides overall technical support to projects for all regions in the Bank on issues such as financing, fare collection, the political economy of reform, and the role of disruptive technologies. He is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and two books. Examples are Sustainable Urban Transport Financing from the Sidewalk to the Subway, Decarbonizing cities by improving public transport and managing land use and traffic, Improving Public Transport: Key Elements for Reform, and Smart Cities, ITS, Mobility, and Energy Efficiency. His research focuses on land use and transport, transport decarbonization, sustainable urban transport asset management, and improving monitoring and evaluation quality, including indicators, for transport projects. He holds a doctorate in urban transportation planning and a master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a civil engineer with a master’s in economics from Los Andes University in Bogota (Colombia).
If you will attend in person, please RSVP. Location MC 3-850.
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1818 Society Fireside Chat with Ajay Banga
2024-06-05 10:30 - 11:30 | Hybrid: MC4-800 and Webex
Webex details will be sent to those who registered to join virtually.
On June 5th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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A Conversation with Martien van Nieuwkoop on Agri-food Systems: Moving from Transition to Transformation
2024-05-30 13:00 - 14:30 | Hybrid: MC3-850 and Webex
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Thematic Group event
Brief Summary of Session: Martien van Nieuwkoop, recently appointed Director, Agriculture Development, Gates Foundation, will share his perspectives on the state of the agri-food sector and the World Bank’s efforts to address the key imperatives, with reflections on the evolving polycrises comprising the COVID aftermath, climate change and conflicts affecting various dimensions of vital supply chains. He will then share his vision for the sector and how he intends to shape the important agenda at the Gates Foundation, leading the Agriculture Development Program to work with farmers, governments, and other partners, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia toward a sustainable, inclusive and resilient agricultural transformation.
Three eminent discussants, Kevin Cleaver, Consultant, Holger Kray, and Diego Arias, Practice Managers, Agriculture & Food Practice, World Bank, will enrich the session with brief thought-provoking remarks, alternative perspectives and select call-out questions to engage in a deeper exploration of the topics. Preeti Ahuja will moderate.
Speaker: Martien van Nieuwkoop, Director, Agriculture Develop., Gates Foundation
Discussants:

Kevin Cleaver, Consultant
Holger Kray, Practice Manager, Agriculture & Food Practice, World Bank
Diego Arias, Practice Manager, Agriculture & Food Practice, World Bank

Moderator: Preeti Ahuja, Chair of the AgFRD TG
Click here to read the bios.
Please RSVP, if you plan to attend in person. Venue: MC 3-850
RSVP here!
Webex details:
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On May 30th, you can directly join the event by using the link or options below:
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Neoliberalism’s Successes and Failures in Turkey and Chile
2024-05-23 10:30 - 12:00 | Hybrid: MC 4 – 100 & Webex
1818 Society Economics Thematic Group event

Speakers:

Tanju Yurukoglu, author of Turkey’s Economic Odyssey since 2000: From Ascent to Turmoil
Andrés Solimano, co-author (with Gabriela Zapata-Román) of Chilean Economic Development under Neoliberalism: Structural Transformation, High Inequality and Environmental Fragility

Discussants:

Raimundo Soto, Professor, Catholic University of Chile
Martin Raiser, Vice President, South Asia Region, World Bank

Please RSVP if you plan to attend in person. Venue: MC 4-100
RSVP Here!
Webex registration!
On May 23rd, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Retiree Medical Insurance and Medicare: What You Need to Know
2024-05-13 11:00 - 12:15 | Hybrid: MC 4-100 & Webex
Health Insurance Committee (Hybrid) event
In person (MC4-100) | Webex
If you have questions about how your Retiree Medical Insurance works with Medicare, don’t miss this presentation offered by the 1818 Society.
In this session, we will:

Explain how Medicare works with WBG insurance
Provide examples of RMIP1 and RMIP2 coordination of benefits
Clarify resources for resolving questions or concerns

You may send your questions in advance by using the RSVP link below:
Advance Questions and RSVP Here!
Webex details:
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On May 13th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Urbanization in a Changing Climate - Flood Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk Management
2024-05-09 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC 5 – 715 & Webex
Urban and Water Thematic Group and Social & Environment Thematic Group (hybrid) event
The Urban and Water Thematic Group is happy to announce a new event co-sponsored with the Social and Environment Thematic Group. A few months ago, our Talk Shop Series started a conversation on Preparing Cities For Weather Extremes with a well attended session on cities and heat waves. This new session will focus on the issue of floods. As this announcement is written, a year’s worth of rain unleashed (in less than 12 hours) immense flooding in Dubai typically known for its hot and dry climate. Floods have become common headlines and this presentation is therefore very timely.
Synopsis:
Causing impacts that range from mere nuisance to major damages and loss of life, flooding is the most widespread and frequent disaster and one of the costliest. Damages from flooding are also increasing, driven in part by climate change but also urbanization patterns that increase communities’ exposure. This presentation summarizes recent operational research from the Urban and DRM global practice and explores both the drivers of impacts from urban flooding and the consequences of a subset of policy interventions. The presentation starts by taking stock of the global trends of urban exposure to floods before delving into the differentiated vulnerability of households and the role of networks in propagating local shocks. Finally, the presentation explores the impacts of various flood management options in cities leveraging urban economic modelling.
Speakers bios:

Jun Rentschler is a Senior Economist at the World Bank, working at the intersection of climate change and sustainable resilient development. Prior to joining The World Bank in 2012, he served as an Economic Adviser at the German Foreign Ministry. He also spent two years at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) working on private sector investment projects in resource efficiency and climate change. Before that he worked on projects with Grameen Microfinance Bank in Bangladesh and the Partners for Financial Stability Program by USAID in Poland. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy, following previous affiliations with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and the Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. Jun holds a PhD in Economics from University College London (UCL), specializing in development, climate, and energy.
Paolo Avner is a Senior Economist at the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), where he co-leads the Disaster Risk Analytics and Resilient Infrastructure thematic areas. His current work in GFDRR focuses on the links between urban form, land uses, transport systems, labor markets and vulnerability to natural hazards in developing country cities. He has worked on a number of analytical products including Urbanization Reviews and flagship reports and is the author of several policy-oriented research papers. Prior to joining the Bank in 2014, Paolo worked in France as a researcher in LEPII (Grenoble) before joining the Center for International Research in Environment and Development (Paris). Paolo has graduated from La Sorbonne University and from University Paris X – Nanterre as an economist and holds a doctorate from EHESS – École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Discussant: Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez (co-Chair of the Social and Environment TG)
Facilitator: Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic (Urban and Water TG Organizing Committee)
If you plan to attend in person, please RSVP (Room MC 5 – 715).
RSVP Here!
On May 9th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Meeting number: 2308 959 9837
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Social Development in the World Bank: Essays in Honor of Michael M. Cernea
2024-05-01 09:00 - 10:30 | Virtual – Webex Meetings
Social and Environment Thematic Group virtual event
The Social and Environment Thematic Group is organizing this event in honor of Michael Cernea, the first social development specialist to be hired in the World Bank. Michael is known to many as the leading scholar and practitioner on involuntary resettlement, and his work paved the way for social development in the Bank and many other institutions.
Scott Guggenheim and Maritta Koch-Weser have edited a book in Michael’s honor, examining social development initiatives in the Bank and around the globe. The book is available as a free download under the Open Access agreement: Social Development in the World Bank. The session will open with a short video interview which Ede Ijjasz conducted recently. Scott and Maritta will both speak about the book, and answer questions.
Chair: Reidar Kvam, TG co-chair
Webex details:
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On May 1st, you can directly join the event by using the link or options below:
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Climate Change and Water Resource Management in Mediterranean Countries
2024-04-25 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC6 – 715 & Webex
Urban & Water Thematic Group (Hybrid) event
Presenters:

Mr. Alain Meyssonnier, President of the Mediterranean Water Institute, and former manager of the Société des Eaux de Marseille (France).
Prof. Nicolas Roche, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Aix-Marseille (France) and specialist of reuse of treated wastewater.

Synopsis:
Climate change obviously affects water resource management in Mediterranean countries. For example, it has not rained in Cataluña (Northeastern Spain and Southern France) for more than two years: as a result, reservoirs that supply Barcelona (5 million people) are almost empty and agriculture and tourism, two pillars of the regional economy, are badly impacted. Similar scenarios are rapidly developing in North Africa and the Middle East. All Mediterranean countries are faced with a need for drastically reducing water demand by cities, irrigation schemes and industries, promoting adapted technologies, recycling treated wastewater, developing large scale seawater desalination programs, and revisiting water pricing policies.
Also, extreme weather conditions have recently resulted in catastrophic floods, often with high tolls on human lives: the recent rupture of a dam following heavy downpours killed 6,000 people in Libya. But construction of dams to regulate flows and dikes to protect settlements located in flooded areas, and/or relocation of such settlements, always face strong opposition from stakeholders concerned with environmental and social consequences.
Our two speakers will summarize the results of the 5th Mediterranean Water Forum (Tunis, February 2024) and key elements of the presentation that will be made by the Mediterranean Water Institute on behalf of its member countries during the 10th World Water Forum (Bali, Indonesia, May 2024). They will also discuss how such proposals can possibly impact water resource management in Southern France.
Presenters’ bios:
Mr. Alain Meyssonnier joined the Société des Eaux de Marseille (SEM), the utility company that provides water supply and wastewater services to France’s third largest urban area (1.65 million) in 1984. Among others, he was responsible for SEM operations in greater Marseille and for SEM international activities in Latin America and North Africa. Mr. Meyssonnier is currently the President of the Mediterranean Water Institute and member of the Board of the World Water Council. He also is the coordinator of the Regional Processes of the 10th World Water Forum. Mr. Meyssonnier holds a masters in econometry from the University of Aix-Marseille and an MBA from ESSEC Paris (France).
Prof. Nicolas Roche teaches chemical engineering at the University of Aix-Marseille (France). Since the mid-1980s he has focused his research on improving wastewater treatment and reuse of treated wastewater and sludge in the context of circular economies. Among other activities Prof. Roche, is an affiliate professor at the Mohamed VI University (Morocco), vice-president of the French Chemical Engineering Society and Chief Editor for the Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration. He has published extensively and supervised numerous PhD theses. Prof. Roche holds a PhD in chemical engineering applied to wastewater treatment from the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (France).
Moderator:
The meeting will be facilitated by our colleague Nadim Khouri, who in addition to his long career at the World Bank held senior positions at the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA). He will introduce the speakers and lead the question-and-answer session that will follow their presentations.
Please RSVP if you plan to attend in person, MC 6 -715
RSVP Here!
On April 25th, you can directly join the meeting by using the direct link and options below:
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Meeting number: 2312 539 4925
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Combating Corruption in Health Sector- Strategies and Practice Insights
2024-04-24 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC 4 – 100 & Webex
HNP TG and Governance TG event
The webinar will feature a discussion of anti-corruption in the health sector including how citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute positively to improve governance and anti-corruption in the health sector. This webinar is being co-sponsored by the 1818 Society Governance and Health, Nutrition, and Population Thematic Groups.
Jonathan Cushing will provide TI-GH perspectives on multilateral agencies’ (including the World Bank) strategic engagement in improving governance and anti-corruption in the health sector. This will be based on the initial findings of an ongoing study by them of questions such as: How decisions on thematic priorities are made at multi-lateral agencies; how effectively anti-corruption mainstreaming in the health sector can be carried out; and What are the potential entry points to increase ACTA investments in the health sector.
Vinay Bhargava will talk about the roles citizens and CSOs play in combating corruption in service delivery and procurement in the health sector. His presentation will draw on experiences made by PTF between 2006 and 2020 in 15 projects implemented across seven countries. Insights from this work are published in the U4 Practice Insight Paper on Civil Society Monitoring in the Health Sector, by Hady Fink, Sarah Steingruber, and Vinay Bhargava.
Speakers:

Jonathan Cushing – Transparency International Global Health (TI-GH)
Vinay Bhargava – Partnership for Transparency (PTF)
Daniela Cepeda Cuadrado – U4 Anti-Corruption Center (U4)

Discussants:

Gandham N.V. Ramana, former Lead Public Health Specialist, World Bank
Patrick Mullen, Lead Public Health Specialist and Program Leader, World Bank Ghana

Moderators:

Debbie Wetzel, Former Sr. Director Governance GP
Tawhid Nawaz, Chair HNP TG, Former Acting Director Africa HD and Director Program Management WHO-SEARO

Speakers’ bios:
Jonathan Cushing is the Director of Transparency International’s Global Health Programme. The programme works to ensure effective, accountable, and transparent health systems which leave no room for corruption, and deliver on UHC. Prior to joining Transparency International, Jonathan spent 12 years working for GIZ in Malawi, Bangladesh, and Nepal, working with Ministries of Health to strengthen health systems and improve the quality of care. He has an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the LSE & LSHTM.
Vinay Bhargava is the Chief Technical Adviser at the Partnership for Transparency (PTF) and Co-chair of the 1818 Society Governance Thematic Group. PTF is a unique anti-corruption organization that supports innovative civil society-led initiatives to improve governance and development effectiveness. It works through a volunteer network that includes mostly former World Bank experts. Vinay is a former World Bank Country Director.
Daniela Cepeda Cuadrado is a Senior Anti-Corruption Adviser at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, where she coordinates U4’s in-country engagements, as well as U4’s work on addressing corruption in the health sector connecting the human rights and anti-corruption agendas. She has worked with several organizations, including the UN system, multilateral and bilateral agencies, academia, think-tanks and civil society in the areas of anti-corruption, health, and sustainable development. Daniela is also an Affiliate Researcher of the Global Health and Rights Project at The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Harvard Law School. She has a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance.
If you will attend in person, please RSVP. Venue: MC 4-100
RSVP here
Webex details:
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On April 24th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
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Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number:2306 260 6140
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Finance
2024-04-19 16:30 - 18:00 | Virtual – Webex Meetings
Global Finance Thematic Group virtual (Webex) event
The term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) frequently appears in headlines, reflecting its growing influence in various sectors, including finance. To shed light on AI’s role in this field, two experts, Angelo Calvello and our GFTG member Arun Muralidhar, will share their insights on utilizing AI technologies. Join us for their presentation on Friday, April 19, at 4:30 pm Eastern Time.
Angelo Calvello has dedicated recent years to developing Rosetta Analytics’ advanced AI investment platform. Rosetta Analytics, an innovative asset manager, leverages sophisticated AI to create and manage dynamic investment strategies. The company’s deep reinforcement learning models autonomously discern data patterns and make predictions without human input.
During the session, Arun Muralidhar will discuss the intersection of investments, Big Data, and “Augmented” Intelligence, particularly focusing on its application in pension funds management.
About the Speakers:

Angelo Calvello holds a PhD in Contemporary European Philosophy from DePaul University. He co-founded Blue Diamond Asset Management AG and has held pivotal roles at notable institutions such as Man Investments Inc., State Street Global Advisors, and the CME Group. His career began as an independent trader on the floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Arun Muralidhar holds a PhD in Managerial Economics from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. from Wabash College. He is the founder of Mcube Investment Technologies LLC and AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions, and serves as an adjunct professor of Finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. His experience includes roles at George Washington University and as an Academic Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives.

Register Here!
On April 19th, you will be able to join the Webex session directly by using the link provided below, among other available options.
Join Webex session
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2319 177 1015
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Join by phone:
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Cyber Security and Fraud Awareness Webinar
2024-04-15 10:30 - 11:30 | Virtual – Zoom
Bank Fund and the 1818 Society event
Cyber security begins with you. Learn helpful practices to keep your devices secure and your information safe. We will also show you how to avoid common frauds and scams and guide you on various prevention methods and useful resources.
Presenter bios:

John Corrado holds 15 years’ experience in information technology & cyber security with every year of that experience earned in the credit union world. John joined BankFund in May 2022 as the Information Security Officer.
Eliza Dahl has been with the credit union for over 12 years. She has experience in member services, and wire transfers, and for the last 6 years has held the position of Anti-Financial Crimes Program Specialist.

Zoom registration!
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Join by browser/app:
Meeting ID: 940 6631 2163
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Join by phone:
US: +13052241968,,94066312163#,,,,*[REDACTED]# or +13092053325,,94066312163#,,,,*[REDACTED]#
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Emergency Resources for Members and their Families: An MHM workshop
2024-04-11 10:30 - 12:00 | Hybrid: 1818 Society Conference Room MC1-860 and Webex
The 1818 Society has produced several resources to help members prepare for, and deal with different kinds of emergency situations. The following resources are now available on a new web page on Emergency Resources which can be accessed online using your computing device or smartphone:
– Emergency Medical ID Card
– Handbook for Advance Planning by Retirees & their Families for Incapacity or End of Life
– Guide for Actions After A Death of a Retiree/Spouse/Partner
This workshop sponsored by Members Helping Members (MHM) will introduce participants to these emergency resources and demonstrate how and when to access and use them. The workshop is being organized as a hybrid allowing those of you would would like to attend in person to do so while other participants may join online.
Panelists:
– Anis Dani, President, 1818 Society and Member MHM
– Dirk Mattheissen, former Board member and Chair of the Pension Committee; Editor of the 2023 version of the Handbook for Advance Planning
– Jacqueline den Otter, Co-Chair, MHM and principal author of the Guide for Actions After a Death
Please RSVP, if you plan to attend in person. Venue: 1818 Society Conference room (MC 1-852)
RSVP here!
Webex details:
Register here!
On March 27, you can directly join the event by using the link or options below:
Join Webex
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2301 381 5408
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Join by phone:
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Was Structural Adjustment a Good Thing After All?
2024-04-03 14:30 - 16:00 | Hybrid: MC C3 214 – Webex
1818 Society WBG History TG, Economics TG and WBG Library event
Structural adjustment (also known as the Washington Consensus, and later called neoliberalism) was widely condemned in the 1990s and later (including by this author). This was a reaction to two things: (1) the imposition of pro-market policies from Washington, and (2) poor economic growth numbers associated with those policies. With the benefit of hindsight, both critiques were wrong. On (1), policy changes were often led by homegrown reformers. On (2), growth looked much better after more post-reform data became available. But it may still be true that the Bank’s attempt to impose policies through structural adjustment lending was misguided, harming unnecessarily the popularity of market reforms worldwide and violating democratic self-determination.
William Easterly is Professor of Economics, New York University. He is the author of The Elusive Quest for Growth (2001), The White Man’s Burden (2006), and The Tyranny of Experts (2014). He was a World Bank staff member from 1985 to 2001, rising to the position of Senior Adviser in the research department.
Moderator: Ritva Reinikka
Discussant: Celestin Monga
If you will attend in person, please RSVP. Venue: MC C3-214
RSVP here!
To attend virtually, please register.
Webex registration
On April 3rd, you can directly join the session by using the link/details below:
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Meeting number: 2317 842 5124
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Food & Nutrition Security Challenges and Responses in Tough Contexts
2024-03-28 11:00 - 12:00 | Webex Meetings
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Thematic Group event
Many challenges beset food and nutrition security (FNS) across the world. In addition to poverty, climate change, policy constraints and supply chain problems, FNS in fragile and conflict affected situations has worsened significantly in recent years, impacting both low- and middle-income countries. Violent conflicts have increased to the highest levels observed over the past three decades. The world is also facing the largest forced displacement crisis ever recorded. The most affected are the poor, women and vulnerable rural populations in countries across Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Central America & the Caribbean. Countries such as Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are unfortunately marked by widespread food insecurity, with large segments facing food shortages and hunger, while healthy diets are out of reach of many.
Speakers: We will hear some broad reflections from Uma Lele, President of the International Agriculture Economics Association, and first-hand accounts of the issues and the World Bank’s response in tough contexts such as Haiti and DRC from two expert TTLs, Ziva Razafintsalama, Sr. Rural Development Specialist and Christophe Grosjean, Agriculture Economist. (In the event that Christophe is on mission the 28th, we will welcome him on another occassion to speak on DRC among others.)
Speakers’ bios:
Uma Lele, President of the International Agriculture Economics Association:
Uma Lele, the current President of IAAE, was the first woman to receive a PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University, at age 24. She is the first woman to be President of IAAE in its 90+ year old history. Currently she is affiliated with the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, India.

Ziva Razafintsalama, Sr. Agricultural Economist, Latin America & Caribbean Region, World Bank Group:
Ziva is a distinguished World Bank Senior Rural Development Specialist with over 30 years of experience in agriculture and rural development. He has dedicated his career to transforming communities in fragile countries such as Madagascar, Burundi, Chad, and Haiti. Through project management leadership and multi-sector initiatives, he has championed sustainable growth and resilience across diverse landscapes. Ziva’s holistic approach integrates agriculture, infrastructure, and community empowerment, ensuring lasting impact.

Christophe Grosjean, Agriculture Economist, West Africa Region, World Bank Group:
Christophe is a World Bank Agriculture Economist with over twenty-three years of experience in the sector, mainly in Haiti and in ECOWAS region with specific skills as a tropical engineer in GIS and surveys, irrigation and landscape management, agribusiness, food production and food security.

Webex details:
Register here!
On March 28th, you can directly join the session by using below link/details:
Join Webex!
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2309 631 9570
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Presentation of the IFC Infrastructure and Gender Toolkit (2023)
2024-03-25 11:00 - 12:30
The Gender Thematic Group, in partnership with the infrastructure thematic groups: Social and Environment, Energy , Urban and Water, and Transport
IFC has prepared a remarkable toolkit on Gender and Infrastructure: https://commdev.org/infra-gender-toolkit/. Adriana Eftimie, the Task Leader for the Toolkit will present it and highlight its use for both the private and the public sector. Adriana is particularly interested in receiving feedback from the 1818 Society how to disseminate the toolkit very widely outside the World Bank Group. Various discussants will offer their sector perspectives.
Speaker: Adriana Eftimie, Senior Operations Officer/Senior Sustainability Specialist & Gender Lead for Infrastructure, IFC
Discussants:

Ede Ijjasz, co-Chair, 1818 Society Social & Environment TG
Eugene McCarthy, co-Chair, 1818 Society Energy TG
Jae So
Anca Dumitrescu

Chair: Dominique Lallement, co-Chair, Gender and Development TG
Webex details:
Register here!
On March 25, you can directly join the event by using the link or options below:
Join Webex
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2304 187 4356
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Access code: [REDACTED] 187 4356

All You Want to Know About Administration of the Net Pension Plan
2024-03-20 10:00 - 11:30 | Hybrid: J7 – 044 & Webex Meetings
A seminar organized by the Pension Committee for Net Plan Participants
Chair: Javed Hamid, Chair, 1818 Society Pension Committee
Panelists:

Sharada Sundar, Manager, Pension Administration (PENAD)
Audrey Phoon Lau, Senior Accounting Officer, WFAPT, WFA-WBG Finance & Accounting, WFA Accounts Receivable, Payroll and Tax

The seminar will cover the following main topics and provide participants with an opportunity to participate in a Question – Answer session with the plan’s administrators at the World Bank:

Administration of the Net Pension Plan: What are your entitlements and responsibilities to manage your Net Pension Plan effectively? What are your options to manage the Cash Benefit component of your Plan? What resources are available, and how can you access information about your Plan?
Tax Supplement: What is the scope and coverage of the Tax Supplement? What is the procedure and documentation needed for you to claim your Tax Supplement? When and how is the Tax Supplement paid? Where can you find more information or answers to your questions about the Tax Supplement?

The Net Plan applies to participants who joined the Plan on or after April 15, 1998.
To ensure your questions are addressed please send them in advance to Javed Hamid at javedhamid44@gmail.com
RSVP here!
Venue: J 7 – 044
To join virtually, please register.
On March 20th, you can directly join the seminar by using the link/details below:
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Meeting number:2307 694 1349
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Participation in Projects: How Far Reaching and How Impactful?
2024-03-06 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC C3 214 – Webex
1818 Society WBG History Thematic Group and WBG Library Hybrid Event
Have the World Bank’s approaches to including participation in the design and implementation of projects had a long-term, positive development impact? The jury is still out. Vijayendra Rao and Michael Woolcock, both of the Research Department, have engaged with this topic for many years and will present their personal perspectives in a session that will be moderated by Jonathan Fox, Director of the Accountability Research Center, American University.
Urban sites and services, local water management and integrated rural development—in these (admittedly exceptional) cases, the Bank took its first steps in the 1980s toward more participatory implementation. Twin tracks emerged in the early 1990s: the Participation Learning Group convened two dozen Task Managers; and social and environmental safeguards began to require informed participation. This was followed by the Voices of the Poor initiative and a growing acknowledgment of social capital as a development resource. Community-driven development projects spurred large-scale, rapid disbursement of funds for local infrastructure. By the early 2010s, there was a further push for citizen engagement in all investment projects, including provision for grievance redress mechanisms. But have projects seriously promoted the institutional change needed to enable and sustain broad-based participation? Have they led to sustainable institutional change?
Discussants:

Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Scientist, DEC, WB
Vijayendra (Biju) Rao, Lead Economist, DEC, WB

Moderator: Professor Jonathan Fox, American University
If you will attend in person, please RSVP. Venue: MC C3-214
RSVP here
Attending virtually, please register.
Register here
On March 6th, you can directly join the session by using the link/details below:
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Meeting number: 2324 093 2056
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The First Electric BRT in Africa: A Game Changer for Sustainable Urban Mobility in the Continent?
2024-03-05 10:30 - 12:00 | Hybrid: MC 4-300 & Webex Meeting
Transport Thematic Group Event
Hybrid: MC-4-300 with Webex connections
On January 14, 2024, a large celebration took place in Dakar, Senegal, with the presence of the President of the country: the inauguration of the 18.3-km new electric bus rapid transit across the city. The project represented the first of its kind (electric) for Africa and a major collaborative effort of the World Bank IDA, IFC, the European Investment Bank, and the government counterparts. While the combined development assistance amounted to 370 million USD from, 85 million USD from EIB, the project also brought about 147million USD equivalent of private sector financing when its operation and management over the next 15 years was awarded to a consortium led by Meridiam and Keolis (one of the Major European public transport operators). The project was approved by the World Bank Board of Directors on May 25, 2017. Once the IDA credit became effective, it took about six years to be implemented, a remarkable feat given the complexity of habilitating the corridor across the urban area for the requirements of BRT operations, the ancillary facilities for non-motorized transport, and greening features. The complex social and environmental challenges were addressed with a sustained collaboration among the different partners and the proactive approach adopted by the implementing agency: the Conseil Executif des Transports Urbains Durables (CETUD). The project includes major investments on cycling and pedestrian facilities along the corridor. With Dakar’s high pollution levels and major congestion, the project is expected to address air-related health issues, reduce traffic jams and crashes, and substantially facilitate access to the city’s health and education centers. See here Five reasons to get excited about the Bus Rapid Transit in Dakar, Senegal (worldbank.org) the blog issued by the Vice-presidents for West and Central Africa, Infrastructure, and IFC’s Africa ahead of the inauguration of the project.
On Tuesday, March 5th, at 10:30 am, Mr. Franck Taillandier, Lead Transport Specialist at the World Bank’s Transport Unit for West Africa and Task Team Leader of the project (alongside Papa Modou Ndiaye and Fatima Arroyo Arroyo, Senior Transport Specialists and co-TTLs), has kindly accepted our invitation to join our hybrid event and present to us the challenges and features of the Dakar BRT Project and what it would mean for the urban mobility agenda in Africa. Before being appointed to his current position, and since he joined the Bank in 2015, Franck was a Senior Urban Transport Specialist in West Africa and the Global Transport Unit, in charge of several urban transport or railway projects and also co-responsible for the organization of the Transforming Transportation events. Before joining the World Bank and for about 6 years, Franck was the Deputy Executive Director of the “Conseil General des Bouches du Rhone,” being responsible for the implementation of public policies and investment programs in France’s “Bouche du Rhone” Region (including the Marseille metropolitan area) and more specifically those related to road and port infrastructures, transport services, and public-private partnerships in the transport sector. Between 2005 and 2008, Franck was the Head of Transport and Mobility Services of the Regional Directorate of Infrastructure of Provence Alpe Cote d’Azur (France). From September 2002 to August 2005, Franck worked at the French Mapping Agency (Institute Geographic National). Franck has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Pierre and Marie Curie University also in Paris, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Mathematics, and General Management from the Ecole Polytechnique.
Please RSVP, if you plan to attend in person.
RSVP here!
Venue: MC4-300
Webex connections details:
Register here!
On March 5th, you can directly join the session by using the link below:
Join Webex!
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2307 289 6211
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Regulatory Oversight of the Water Sector in the UK and Recent Woes at Thames Water
2024-02-29 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC 4-300 & Webex Meeting
Urban and Water Thematic Group event
The Urban and Water Thematic Group invites you to join a conversation on the water sector in the UK. The session will be through Webex (see link information below). For those in the DC area who would like to join others in HQ, there will be an opportunity to attend the broadcast in Room MC4-300 and gather for lunch after the session.
Moderator/Panelists:

David Ehrhardt, Chief Executive Officer of Castalia, a consultancy firm with extensive experience in private provision of service, will be the moderator for the session that will be in a “live interview” format with two specialists familiar with the sector
Wiliam (Bill) Kingdom (former World Bank Global Lead for the Water Practice) – now International Consultant based in the UK
Mr. Tony Ballance, former Director of Regulation of the water utility Severn Trent (UK).

Synopsis: Thames Water, the utility that provides the water supply and wastewater (WSWW) service to 10 million people of the greater London (UK) area was privatized in 1989. The main objective pursued at that time was to inject discipline and efficiency into operations and ease the burden on municipal finances. Indeed, many international investors ranging from sovereign funds of Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, China, Ontario (Canada), the German utility giant RWE and the Australian investor Macquarie have been Thames Water key shareholders. After 35 years, despite billions invested to modernize an aging infrastructure, the WSWW service is still characterized by high losses and pollution of water bodies. Moreover, the accumulation of sizable debt (about 14 billion UK pounds) and poor performance of the utility have led the UK Government to ways of intervening, including the possibility of re-nationalizing it.

Panelists’ bios:

Bill Kingdom is a global specialist on water supply and sanitation in developing countries. Until recently he was the Global Lead for Water Supply and Sanitation in the Water Practice of the World Bank and a lecturer at Oxford University where he taught Governance, Institutions and Regulation. During his career he has worked extensively in South and East Asia, Southern Africa, the Middle East, UK, USA, and Canada. He has led urban and rural water supply and sanitation projects with a range of public enterprises in both developed & developing countries, supported regulators, provided policy advice to government & municipalities and implemented a number of innovative PPP projects from small town water supplies to performance-based leakage reduction contracts. He has authored many papers including on financing the SDG agenda, capital efficiency, off-grid urban water supplies, developing well-run utilities, policy/institutions/regulation, and aggregation in service delivery.
Tony Ballance is an experienced regulatory economist with over twenty years’ experience in senior corporate, consultancy and regulatory roles. Tony is presently Chief Strategy & Regulation Officer at Cadent Gas Ltd – the largest of the UK’s gas distribution businesses – where he leads the company’s decarbonization strategy and regulatory interface with Ofgem the energy sector’s regulator. Prior to Cadent, Tony was Director of Strategy & Regulation at Severn Trent Water where he performed a very similar role – and was on the Severn Trent Plc Board for eight years. He has previously worked as an economic consultant in the utilities sector for Stone & Webster and London Economics with extensive international/developing country experience – as well as Ofwat’s Chief Economist. Tony is a passionate environmentalist and conservationist and is Chairman of the National Forest Company and a Trustee of the Soil Association. He is also a Council Member of the Regulatory Policy Institute and lectures on regulation at the London School of Economics.
David Ehrhardt is a global expert in the sanitation and water sector with over 30 years of experience advising governments, utilities, and development agencies on water sector regulation reform and private participation in water investments. He has advised 75 privately financed water and wastewater projects worth over US$10 billion. He has supported private and development financial institutions in developing PPP project pipelines for wastewater reuse and non-revenue water reduction investments. Mr. Ehrhardt is qualified in law and economics and has worked in over 50 countries globally. He started his career in the New Zealand Treasury as a Regulation economist. Then, he worked for London Economics advising on water sector reform and regulation. Currently, he is the CEO of Castalia, a company that works to improve the policy, law, finance, resource management, and service provision of infrastructure sectors globally. As a leading regulatory and policy advisor for water and sanitation, Mr. Ehrhardt has been engaged by international agencies to prepare best practice guides and reports on regulation, governance, and public private partnerships. This includes the World Bank’s Water PPP Toolkit and the performance-based contract guidelines for non-revenue water reduction.

Note: To ensure that the interview provides answers that many of us may have on the evolution of the sector and lessons learned, please send any questions that you may want to be addressed to Alex Bakalian (alexbakalian@gmail.com) by Monday February 26, 2024. There will also be an opportunity to raise questions at the end of the session.
Please RSVP, if you plan to attend in person.
RSVP here!
Venue: MC 4 – 300
Webex connection details:
On February 29th, you can directly join the session by using the link and details below:
Join Webex
Join by browser/meeting number:
Meeting number: 2314 694 4346
Password: [REDACTED]
Join by phone
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Access code: [REDACTED] 694 4346
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Data for Action on Road Safety: The 2023 Global Status Report on Road Safety
2024-02-20 12:00 - 13:30 | Virtual – Webex Meetings
Transport Thematic Group Event
On December 13, 2023, the United Nation’s World Health Organization (WHO) presented in Geneva the latest Global Status Report on Road Safety. The report details the scale of road traffic fatalities and the progress in advancing country laws and strategies geared to reduce road crashes. The report, alongside other sources of data, represents a solid basis for defining additional country actions in addressing a major health and development challenge and sets the baseline for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 target of halving road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030. The report, the fifth in a series, shows that while the number of traffic deaths has fallen slightly since 2010 (to 1.19 million per year), the price paid for mobility remains far too high, and urgent and additional actions are needed if the above-mentioned target is to be achieved. The call for urgent action is particularly critical in developing countries, where 90% of the fatalities occur, and for their younger population as road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and youth aged 5 to 29 years.
On Tuesday February 20th, at 12:00 noon, we are very fortunate to have Dr. Maria Segui-Gomez, an expert and leading international consultant on public health and road safety issues, and lead author of the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023. She will present to us the results of the report, the challenges in preparing the extensive set of statistics this report brings about, and the implications for action. A physician by training, Maria Segui-Gomez led Spain’s Directorate-General for Traffic between February 2012 and July 2016—a period during which traffic fatalities decreased by 18% in the midst of a substantial increase in traffic volumes. She studied Medicine and General Surgery at the University of Barcelona where she later completed a master’s degree in Public Health. Maria also has a master’s and doctorate in Sciences in Health Policy from Harvard University. Her stay at Harvard culminated with her appointment as Deputy Director of Harvard’s Injury Control Center. In 1999, she joined the faculty—as Adjunct Professor—of the Injury Control and Research Center at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Health Policy and Management. Upon returning to Spain in 2003, she taught at the University of Navarra in Pamplona and became founding director of the European Center of Injury Prevention. In July 2011 and before becoming Director General for Traffic in February 2012, she was appointed Director of Public Health of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. She is the recipient of several international awards including the International Distinguished Career and the Excellence in Science awards from the American Public Health Association, the Fellowship and the A. J. Mirkin awards from the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, and the 2015 Beltil Aldman award from International Research Council of Biomechanics of Injury. Between her appointment with the Spanish government and the current consultancy at WHO, Dr. Segui-Gomez has worked as senior safety consultant for the FIA and has collaborated in some WB works in Nepal and the Western Balkans.
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How to Assure Sustainable Food & Nutrition Security (FNS) for All?
2024-02-08 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid: MC 4 – 100 & Webex
Agriculture, Food & Rural Development Thematic Group and Health, Nutrition & Population Thematic Group event.
The SDGs of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition (in all its forms) by 2030 are off-track due to a confluence of climate change, conflict, and poverty. Global socio-economic indicators including those of FNS were also setback by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to FAO’s 2023 SOFA, up to 783 million people faced hunger in 2022 (an increase of 122 million over pre-pandemic levels), while some 2.4 billion, especially women and rural populations “did not have access to nutritious, safe and sufficient food all year round”. This is not just a developing world problem, however. A recent FT article (https://www.ft.com/content/4acb98b8-2cc3-40a2-b5bc-7bfbb5500a62) highlights that nearly 18 million US citizens live in “food deserts”, which exacerbate malnutrition (including obesity). At the same time, governments around the world provide over $800 billion each year to support their agrifood sector, but much of this support is geared towards commodities that do not promote healthier diets.
So, what practical measures can be adopted by governments everywhere? Given that the World Bank has identified food security, health and nutrition as one of its six Global Challenge Programs (GCPs), how is it stepping up to address this silent crisis?
Speakers:

Felipe Dizon, Sr. Agricultural Economist, AGF GP
Meera Shekar, Global Lead, Nutrition Security, HNP GP

Moderators: Preeti Ahuja and Tawhid Nawaz, respective Chairs of the AgFRD & HNP TGs

Speakers’ Bios:
Meera Shekar is Global Lead for nutrition with the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice. She provides leadership, support and policy advice on the Bank’s nutrition portfolio across the spectrum of undernutrition and obesity. She manages key partnerships, firmly positioning nutrition within the Bank’s initiative on Human Capital, as well as the agriculture and food security and social protection agendas. She led the repositioning of the nutrition agenda that led to the global Scaling-up Nutrition (SUN) movement, and was a founding member of the Catalytic Financing Facility for Nutrition that evolved in to “The Power of Nutrition”. Meera served as the chair for the SUN executive committee and has been one of the principals for the aid-architecture for nutrition, and the G8 and G20 agenda-setting process for food security and nutrition. She led the development of the first ever global Investment Framework for Nutrition and co-led (with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) the Nutrition Financing working group for the 2021 Tokyo “Nutrition for Growth” (N4G) summit. Meera has lived and worked across the globe and has extensive policy and operational experience. She has a PhD in international nutrition, epidemiology and population studies from Cornell University.
Among other publications, she is the author of several publications including Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development, 2006; Scaling-up Nutrition –What will it cost? World Bank 2009; And most recently, An Investment Framework for Nutrition: Reaching the global Targets for Stunting, Anemia, Breastfeeding and Wasting, World Bank, 2017; and Obesity: Health and Economic Consequences of an Impending Global Challenge, World Bank, 2020. Meera has served as an Adjunct professor at Tufts University, USA, and has been a guest speaker at several global and academic venues. She is on the Advisory panel for the Essential Living Standards index, Legatum Institute, UK; the Cost Of Obesity Advisory Group (CoOAG) and the advisory group for the Exemplars in Global Health at Gates Ventures (Bill Gates’s private office) and BMGF strategy refresh, among others.
Felipe Dizon is a Senior Economist in the Agriculture and Food Global Practice of the World Bank. His current work focuses on understanding the constraints and opportunities to improving access to healthier and more sustainable diets in rural and urban areas. Prior to joining the Bank, he conducted research on financial inclusion and novel financial products, and led various research projects in Guatemala, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Uganda, and Zambia. Felipe holds a Ph.D. in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of California- Davis, an MA from the University of San Francisco, and a BA from De La Salle University- Manila in the Philippines.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend in person.
Venue: MC 4 – 100
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On February 8th, you can directly join the event by clicking the link below.
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Meeting number: 2304 434 3791
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U.S. Federal Income Taxes and Foreign Financial Asset Reporting Seminar
2024-02-05 10:30 - 12:00 | Hybrid: MC 8 -100 & Webex
The 1818 Society Taxation and Immigration Committee is pleased to announce a forthcoming seminar on U.S. Federal Income Taxes and Foreign Financial Asset Reporting. The seminar will be of primary interest to members of the Society who are U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.
Date: Monday, February 5, 2024
Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Venue: World Bank Group Main Complex Room MC 8-100
SPEAKER: Mr. Mishkin Santa, J.D., LL.M; Principal, Director of International Tax, The Wolf Group, P.C., Washington, DC and Fairfax, VA (Website: https://thewolfgroup.com/ )
MODERATOR: Deane Jordan, Chair, Committee on Taxation and Immigration
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION:
The seminar will focus on: (i) important features of the U.S. Federal income tax system and of individual income tax returns for 2023 including recent updates; (ii) how to report the World Bank Group SRP pension as well as other foreign financial accounts and assets on Form 8938 (Statement of Specified foreign Financial Assets); and (iii) how also to report foreign financial accounts on FinCEN Form 114 (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)).
Time permitting, the seminar may also provide a brief update on the status of the U.S. exit tax (expatriation tax). The exit tax may possibly affect a U.S. citizen who renounces U.S. nationality, or a U.S. permanent resident who terminates U.S. residency either voluntarily or involuntarily, and who meets certain criteria related to the duration of U.S. residency, average annual net income taxes, and net worth.
To attend in person (MC 8 – 100), please RSVP.
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On February 5th, you can directly join the seminar by clicking the link below.
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Webinar number: 2319 151 7985
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A Tale of Two Chinas – How China Reaches Carbon Neutrality Goal
2024-02-05 09:00 - 10:30 | Virtual – Webex Meetings
Energy Thematic Group Event
Synopsis: China emits more greenhouse gas emissions than the US and the EU combined, and burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. But China is also building more solar and wind power than the rest of the world combined, and manufactures 80% of solar PV, 70% of battery, and 60% of EV in the world. China is committed to reaching carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Thanks to the exponential growth in renewable energy in recent years, China will achieve its 2030 NDC target of 1200 GW of solar and wind by 2025, five years ahead of time. China could also reach early peaking at a lower level. However, given the energy security concerns and power shortage, China is also building many coal power plants. This presentation will update China’s energy development, discuss the challenges of energy transition, and lay out decarbonization pathways to reach net zero by 2060.
Speaker: Xiaodong Wang, Lead Energy Specialist and Infrastructure Program Leader for China, Mongolia, and Korea, World Bank
To join virtually, please register.
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On February 5th, you can directly join the event by clicking the link below.
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Meeting number: 2303 833 6367
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Access code: [REDACTED] 833 6367
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