Former IFC and World Bank senior leaders, Philippe Le Houerou and Hafez Ghanem, joined the LAB as Distinguished Fellows.
Paris, 1st February 2023
The Finance for Development Lab, a growing Paris-based economic think-tank dedicated to building a fairer and more effective architecture for international finance, is delighted to announce that Philippe Le Houérou (former CEO of the International Finance Corporation), and Hafez Ghanem (former Vice President for Africa at the World Bank), have officially joined its ranks as Distinguished Fellows.
Together, they will bring decades of knowledge, expertise, and experiences in some of the most pressing challenges of our times, and provide the Lab’s economic research team with exceptional first-hand advice and insights.
Commenting on their appointment, Daniel Cohen, Chair of the Finance for Development Lab, stated: “We are truly honoured that Philippe and Hafez have joined FDL’s growing team. In their respective roles at IFC and the World Bank, they have distinguished themselves as exceptional leaders and I am convinced that they will bring invaluable insights to our work.”
Ishac Diwan, Research Director of the Finance for Development Lab, commented further: “In the development community, Hafez and Philippe are known as doers who think outside the box and push for results. Their challenge at FDL is to win the battle of ideas, working with a community of think-tanks around the developing world to make the development architecture more fit to purpose”.
“We are truly honoured that Philippe and Hafez have joined FDL’s growing team. In their respective roles at IFC and the World Bank, they have distinguished themselves as exceptional leaders and I am convinced that they will bring invaluable insights to our work.” - Daniel Cohen, Chair of the Finance for Development Lab
“In the development community, Hafez and Philippe are known as doers who think outside the box and push for results. Their challenge at FDL is to win the battle of ideas, working with a community of think-tanks around the developing world to make the development architecture more fit to purpose”. - Ishac Diwan, Research Director of Finance for Development Lab
“I am pleased to join FDL’s professional and experienced team to help think through how to reform the existing aid architecture, to improve its effectiveness, and to address the new realities and challenges of the 21st century.” - Philippe Le Houérou.
“I am very happy to join FDL and am looking forward to working with leading experts around the world on the important issue of mobilizing finance for economic development.” - Hafez Ghanem.
- Le Houérou is currently the chairman of the board of the Agence Française de Developpement (AFD), a “distinguished fellow” at the Emerging Markets Forum, and “chaire” of the Aid Architecture at the FERDI (France). He spent most of his professional career at the World Bank Group (WBG), first joining as a Young Professional in 1987, before holding various senior leadership positions over the years. From March 2016 to October 2020, he was the Chief Executive Officer of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. During his tenure at IFC, he designed and implemented a new strategy aimed at creating new markets and opportunities in developing countries. This strategy sustainably shifted the organisation to proactively develop private sector solutions to development challenges and work more closely with the World Bank, other development partners, and governments.
“I am pleased to join FDL’s professional and experienced team to help think through how to reform the existing aid architecture, to improve its effectiveness, and to address the new realities and challenges of the 21st century.” said Philippe Le Houérou.
- Ghanem is a development expert with a large number of academic publications; and more than forty-year experience in policy analysis, project formulation and supervision, and management of multinational institutions. He has worked in over 40 countries in Africa, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and South East Asia. He is currently a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South in Morocco, and a non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. Between 2015 and 2022 he was Vice President of the World Bank, initially responsible for the Middle East and North Africa, then for Sub-Saharan Africa and then East and Southern Africa. In this latter capacity, he was responsible for developing and implementing the World Bank’s strategy in the region, including a nearly $20 billion annual lending program and a large volume of analytical work and policy papers.
“I am very happy to join FDL and am looking forward to working with leading experts around the world on the important issue of mobilizing finance for economic development.” commented Hafez Ghanem.