Team

WBI's Urban and Local Government Program is run by a compact team of urban professionals. The Program draws extensively from the large pool of World Bank Urban Staff as well as trainers from other related WBI programs. Training and research institutions from across the world who are active partners of the Urban Program also provide valuable inputs as resource persons, in the preparation of case studies and in curriculum development.

Poulomi Dhar Chakrabarti Consultant
Mansha Chen Consultant
Evangeline Kim Cuenco Senior Operations Officer
Katalin Demeter Senior Urban Management Specialist
David G. De Groot Senior Urban Specialist
Drew Harton Consultant
Damon Luciano Program Assistant
Ronald MacLean-Abaroa  Senior Operations Officer
Mary L. Mcneil    Senior Operations Offer
Bill Nedrow Program Assistant
Sabine M. Palmreuther   Program Officer
Peter Schierl  Consultant
Victor Vergara  Lead Urban Sector Specialist
Yuan Xiao   Consultant
Berna Yekeler   Consultant
André Herzog  Senior Urban Specialist
Karen Sirker Social Development Specialist

 

Poulomi joined the Urban Team in January 2008 and works with the disaster management program. She specializes on local governance and program evaluation and is currently involved in research on organizational and institutional arrangements in disaster recovery and reconstruction. Her previous experience was with the policy think tank, Tata Energy Research Institute in India. Poulomi holds a masters degree in International Development from MIT and an undergraduate degree in Urban Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture in India.

Mansha Chen joined WBI's Urban and Local Government Team in March 2008. She is working on the team's China  program,  focusing on strengthening urban professional's competency and local government’s capacity to meet the challenges raised during China  ’s rapid urbanization process. She edits the China Urban Development Quarterly--a bilingual newsletter on worldwide urban development issues of particular interest to Chinese urban professionals. She also provides assistance to the development of a global course on land use and urban planning. Mansha obtained a Master degree in Urban Planning from China Academy of Urban Planning and Design in January 2008, and holds Bachelor degrees in Urban Planning and in Economics from Peking University . Mansha has worked as part-time research assistant in a variety of urban and regional planning projects and advisory programs supported by Chinese Academy of Engineering and China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

Ms. Cuenco is an urban management and planning specialist with experience throughout the world. She has over twelve years of cross-regional operational and research experience at the World Bank, working on urban infrastructure and rural water supply and sanitation programs. Regions include South and Southeast Asia, all regions of Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. She has led urban operations in India and Bhutan; managed urban sector work; and participated in public expenditure reviews focusing on poverty issues. After ten years in operations, she joined WBI in 2003 to work on a high level international and multi-stakeholder conference addressing critical emerging issues on poverty reduction. The Shanghai Conference was part of a year global learning process that drew from a series of case studies, multicountry interactive videoconferences, online dialogues, and field visits. She is the author of the Infrastructure Section of the soon-to-be published Shanghai Learning Guide. As a member of WBI's Urban and Local Government Team, she works primarily in East Asia where she is responsible for multi-year, capacity development programs for local governments in Indonesia and the Philippines, and on pilot training programs in West Africa.

Prior to joining the Bank, Kim worked for USAID in Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire, the Harvard Institute for International Development in Indonesia, and UN Habitat in Kenya. She has taught and practiced planning in Florida. She is a member of the American Planning Association, and has been a reviewer for the Journal of Planning Education and Research published by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in the United States. Kim holds an MA in Sociology from Brown University and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from M.I.T. She also completed the International Executive Program at INSEAD.

Katalin Demeter joined the Urban team in 2002. Her primary responsibilities related to capacity building programs in disaster risk management. In this capacity she has developed and manages a global program that promotes comprehensive, pro-active disaster risk management practices. She works with countries of East and South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America to strengthen the countries learning infrastructure in developing and delivering broad based outreach and awareness raising programs in order to reduce the risks and impacts of disasters. In addition, she is designing and offering capacity building activities in urban and municipal management for countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region with specific focus on Russia. Previously, she held the position of regional coordinator and was responsible for the World Bank Institute capacity enhancement strategy design and implementation in Europe and Central Asia Region.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Katalin worked as a researcher for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and held senior positions at the Ministry of Finance and Planning Board of Hungary.

Katalin is a macroeconomist, earned her MA and Doctorate from Budapest University of Economics and her PhD from University of Connecticut.

David (Dave) DeGroot, Senior Urban Specialist joined the Urban and Local Government Program on May 1, 2007. Dave came to the team from the Africa Urban Sector Unit (AFTU1) with a rich field experience of working on local government and decentralization issues including over 20 years on the ground in Africa.

In his position as Senior Regional Local Government and Decentralization Specialist, Dave is responsible for: (a) designing and scaling up the capacity development program in local government and decentralization in South Africa, including a Local Government Municipal Qualifications Initiative to professionalize urban and local government management and an Inter Governmental Finance (IGF) Multimedia Knowledge Package (in collaboration with South African National Treasury); (b) in Southern Africa, developing  and scaling  up Urban and Housing Knowledge Outputs (in close collaboration with Cities Alliance);  (c) Providing cross support to a number of World Bank operations and sector work, including, but not limited to the South Africa Municipal Methane Carbon Project,  the Swaziland Local Government Support, and the Zambia Decentralization Implementation Support ESW.

 

 

Ronald MacLean–Abaroa became in 1985 the first democratically elected mayor of La Paz in forty years and was re-elected to serve for four terms. He has held five national cabinet positions in Bolivia, and in March 2002 won his party's first-ever primary election and the nomination as the presidential candidate of A.D.N. The June 2002 elections made his first, unsuccessful bid for the presidency of Bolivia. Mr. MacLean-Abaroa received his B.Sc. in Development Economics (1971) from the University of Maryland and his MPA (1980) from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Research Fellow. He recently served as the Senior Governance Researcher of the Central America Project with the Harvard Institute for International Development, leading research on institutional reform and governance and working on issues of decentralization, devolution of government powers to local citizens, and anti-corruption strategies.

Mr. MacLean has served as a consultant and advisor on governance and anti-corruption issues to numerous international organizations and governments. He chaired both the Economic and Social Council of the Andean Pact Countries (1977) and the Board of Directors of the Andean Development Corporation (2000), has held senior executive management positions in two of Bolivia's mining operations, and has sat on the boards of leading banks.

 

Bill Nedrow joined the Urban and Local Government team as a Program Assistant in January, 2008 after serving nearly 10 years with the Infrastructure Finance and Financial Sector teams of World Bank Institute.

Bill has attained Bachelors Degrees in International Politics and French from Frostburg State University (Maryland ) and a Masters Degree in Foreign Languages (French) from West Virginia University .  He is widely recognized for his superb collaboration and his attention to detail and results.

Bill is fluent in English and  French and is among the longest commuters in WBI as he resides with his wife and 2 boys in Charles Town, West Virginia. 

Sabine Palmreuther joined the urban team as a Program Officer in April 2007.  Sabine has worked in the capacity as Special Assistant to the Vice President for the past two and a half years, and brings the corporate perspective to the team.  Prior to joining the Bank, Sabine worked in the Program Finance department for the German Investment and Development Company (DEG) in Cologne , Germany .  She was in charge of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project portfolio for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, mainly Mexico .  Prior to that, Sabine worked in the capacity as a research assistant in the Sustainable Development Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).  She was responsible for organizing a series of expert meetings pertaining to an IDB initiative on "Helping Small and Medium Enterprises Access Finance and Capital in Emerging Economies", and working on SME issues.  Sabine holds a Master's degree in business administration from Germany .

Peter Schierl has worked in WBI since 2004, and joined the Urban team in October 2006.  He is working on local government projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East and North Africa such as the Africa Good Governance Program on the Radio Waves, which is broadcasted to municipalities in Ghana , Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda .  Prior to joining WBI, Peter has been a journalist and PR manager; he has also gathered experience with film productions.

Peter holds a Master degree in Science of Communication from the University of Salzburg, a Master in International Relations from the University of Essex and a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Vienna.

In 1991 Mr. Vergara joined the Urban Division of the World Bank where he assisted in the preparation of the Bank’s municipal development policy paper. Mr. Vergara worked in World Bank operations responsible for urban development projects focusing on financial management and governance of subnational governments in Latin America and currently provides support for operations in East Africa and Latin America focusing of Guatemala.  In 1998 Mr. Vergara joined WBI and was team leader of the Decentralization program directing a learning program on intergovernmental fiscal relations.  Currently as a member of WBI Urban team Mr. Vergara leads work in Latin America and Africa focusing on application of technology for building the capacity of municipal officials.  Among the programs he coordinates include Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF);  Monterrey Institute of Technology Partnership;  Africa Municipal Radio Capacity Building;  Guatemala Municipal Radio Training program and a regional program on participatory budgeting. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Vergara was manager of assistance to coastal communities for a national development trust responsible for investment programs in some of the poorest regions in Mexico. Mr. Vergara is a Mexican national and holds a Master of Agriculture degree from Texas A&M University and a Master of City Planning (Regional Economics) from MIT. Mr. Vergara's hero is his wife -- Gabriela (who is smarter than him) and their pride and joy are their daughters Almendrita,  Andrea and their son Victor Enrique.

Yuan Xiao, a Chinese national, joined the team in August 2005. She is working on the team's China program, focusing on strengthening urban and local government’s capacity to meet management challenges in China’s rapid urbanization process.Yuan manages the Urban Team's website and also provides assistance to the team's communications and knowledge management.

Yuan graduated from Peking University with B.A. in Economics and B.A. in International Politics. She obtained her M.A. in International Relations from University of Toronto in June 2005. Yuan has interned at Canada China Business Council in Toronto, as well as  Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in Beijing.

Berna Yekeler joined the urban team as a Disaster Risk Management Consultant in August 2007. She is working on capacity building programs in disaster risk management in East and South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin American countries.
Prior to joining the WBI, she worked for Turkish Embassy in Washington DC, and had some experience with non-profit organizations.  Berna holds a Master of Science Degree in Project Management from George Washington University. 

André Herzog is an urban planner trained in U.K (MSc/University College London) and Brazil (BSc/University of São Paulo), with over 14 years of experience in and across Africa, Latin America, South East Asia, East Europe and Middle East.  Substantive areas of expertise: urban management, decentralization, and social accountability. Since September 2003, he was been working at the World Bank, leading and contributing to high level technical assistance, operational work, and policy guidance to national, regional, and local governments as well as civil society organizations and learning institutions.

He joined the WBISD Urban and Local Government Program on May 1, 2008. In his position as Senior Urban Specialist, André is responsible for leading and contributing to regional, country-wide, and/or city/local government specific capacity building initiatives in the areas of Urban Services to the Poor; Urban Planning and Management; Social Accountability and Demand Side Governance; and Disaster risk management. With special attention to Urban Services to the Poor, he is the task team leader for South Asia  urban capacity building program. Focused mainly in India  , the program aims to continue and scale up urban management certification, and support the urban country team to incorporate capacity development into the lending portfolio.

Before joining the Bank, he worked for the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), the InterAmerican Development Bank, and, and private sector in Brazil, coordinating technical assistance, capacity building, and research projects in Latin America, East Europe, Middle East, and East Asia.  His career initiated in France , later moved back to Brazil  where he founded his own urban planning firm (E+A), lectured at university, co-founded a new urban planning and architecture faculty (School of City ), and collaborated with different local governments, and non-governmental organizations.

Karen Sirker is a social development specialist in the Water and Rural Program and the Urban Program of the World Bank Institute's Sustainable Development Division. She currently works on  1)  anti-corruption, good governance and social accountability in the water sector; and institutional capacity building on social accountability in the South Asia Region. For the past three years, she has conducted global research on social accountability and has designed and implemented capacity development programs to operationalize social accountability approaches and tools into Bank projects in South Asia and Africa.  She co-wrote two World Bank Institute Working Papers entitled, "Stocktaking of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia and the Pacific" and "Empowering the Marginalized: Case Studies of Social Accountability in Asia".
 
Since joining WBI, she has been involved in:
- managing the traditional structures and local governance program;
- developing and implementing training in participatory monitoring and evaluation;
- managing a community-based monitoring and evaluation learning program in Nigeria;
- developing and coordinating training in economic management and development planning in 1999 and 2000 in East Timor.

Before coming to the World Bank, Ms. Sirker worked for the international non-profit organization, Search for Common Ground, in conflict resolution; with Human Rights Watch, and as a consultant to the United Nations Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) working on UN resolutions related to women in development, disarmament, human rights, and south-south cooperation.

Ms. Sirker holds an M.A. in International Economics and Social Change and Development from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington, DC.