"Building Inclusive Financial Systems" discussed on Wednesday, January 16 at 4:00pm in J1-050

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Invite you to a book launch
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| | |
| | |
| | Building Inclusive Financial Systems: |
| (Embedded image | A Framework for Financial Access |
| moved to file: | Michael Barr, Anjali Kumar, and Robert E. |
| pic22012.jpg) | Litan |
| | Editors |
| | |
| | Broad-based and inclusive financial |
| | systems can significantly aid financial |
| | development, reduce poverty, and expand |
| | economic opportunity in developing |
| | countries. Poor households and |
| | individuals often have difficulty |
| | obtaining financial services for a |
| | multitude of reasons, including |
| | transaction costs, perceived risk, |
| | inadequate legal and financial |
| | infrastructure, and information barriers. |
| | Yet many financial institutions have |
| | begun making profitable inroads into |
| | these underserved markets through the |
| | continuing expansion of financial access |
| | and microfinance. |
| | |
| | Building Inclusive Financial Systems |
| | offers an indispensable guide for |
| | governments and the private sector to |
| | increase access effectively and |
| | responsibly. Panelists will share their |
| | experience and views on new directions in |
| | work in the area of financial access, |
| | building upon and extending themes in the |
| | book. |
| | |
| | |
|--------------------+---------------------------------------------|

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Presentation: 4:00-5.15 pm; Reception: 5.15 to 6.00 pm
World Bank J Building, Auditorium J1-050

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calendar

MODERATED BY
Elizabeth Littlefield
Director, World Bank and CEO of CGAP
Ms. Littlefield comes to CGAP from the investment bank JP Morgan,
where she was the Managing Director in charge of JP Morgan?s
Emerging Markets Capital Markets. As such, she was responsible for
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and
Africa until leaving to join CGAP.

PRESENTED BY
Anjali Kumar
Adviser, Financial and Private Sector Development VP, World Bank
Ms. Kumar is an Adviser in the Financial and Private Sector vice
presidency, currently leading a unit engaged in building world wide
indicators on financial access. Her previous responsibilities
included Lead Financial Economist, Latin American region and
Principal Economist, East Asian region. Her prior country
experience span the European region, the Middle East, South Asia and
Africa. She has been a consultant to the Ministry of Industry,
Government of India, and held a Fellowship at the Institute of
Economic Growth, Delhi.

Marilou Uy
Sector Director, Africa Finance and Private Sector Development
Department, World Bank
Ms. Uy is the Sector Director for the Africa Finance and Private
Sector Development Department at the World Bank. Previously, she
served as Director of the Financial Sector Operations and Policy
Department in the Financial Sector Vice-Presidency (FSE) as well as
Chair of the Financial Sector Board since September 2002. Ms. Uy has
worked on trade policy, investment climate, and financial sector
issues in various operational departments in Latin America, Middle
East, and South Asia.

Liliana Rojas-Soares
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Ms. Rojas-Soares is the Chair of the Latin American Shadow Financial
Regulatory Committee (CLAAF). She has served as Managing Director
and Chief Economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank, as the
Principal Advisor in the Office of Chief Economist at the
Inter-American Development Bank, and as Deputy Chief of the Capital
Markets and Financial Studies Division of the Research Department at
the International Monetary Fund.

Peer Stein
Manager of Financial Infrastructure & Institution Building,
International Finance Corporation
Mr. Stein is overseeing and supporting IFC?s technical assistance
and advisory services in financial markets world-wide, including SME
banking, housing finance, microfinance, leasing, securities markets
and energy efficiency finance. Further, he is leading IFC?s and the
World Bank?s advisory work in financial infrastructure, specifically
supporting the development of credit bureaus to support greater
access to finance in developing and emerging markets as well as
managing the World Bank?s Payment Systems Development Group.

Hanns-Martin Hagen
Vice President, KfW Bankengruppe
Mr. Hagen is Vice President of the unit for Financial and Private
Sector Development, Europe/Caucasus. Mr. Hagen is responsible for
the development of equity and debt instruments adapted to the needs
of microfinance institutions and local banks in developing and
transitions countries. Prior to his current position Mr. Hagen
served as Senior Project Manager in the Asia and Pacific Department
(1999-2002) which followed a posting as Capital Markets Analyst in
KfW's treasury department (1997-1999). Prior to joining KfW he
worked with Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt (Germany) and Duisburg
(Germany) where he received his training.

Michael Barr
Professor of Law, University of Michigan
Mr. Barr is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
in Washington, D.C. He conducts large-scale empirical research on
low- and moderate-income households, including as the Principal
Investigator for the Detroit Area Household Financial Services Study
at the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan and as a
key researcher for the FDIC?s study of bank services for LMI
households. Mr. Barr previously served as Treasury Secretary Robert
E. Rubin?s Special Assistant, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury for Community Development Policy, and as Special Advisor to
President William J. Clinton.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the InfoShop
The InfoShop is the public information center of the World Bank and
serves as a forum for substantial debate on international
development. Our extensive events program consists of more than 250
events over the past two years and has hosted many internationally
recognized speakers including Queen Noor, Francis Fukuyama, Jeffrey
Sachs, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Friedman, and Carly
Fiorina. The InfoShop functions as the only publicly accessible
space at headquarters and provides internal and external audiences
with over 15,000 titles published by the World Bank, international
organizations, and other publishers on development issues.
For more information, visit: www.worldbank.org/infoshop

Comments about the events program:

http://go.worldbank.org/TDG9T8O9K0

REMINDER: "Russia's Capitalist Revolution" on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 12:00pm in J1-050

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&
Peterson Institute for International Economics
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| | |
| (Embedded | The Russian revolution, collapse of the Soviet |
| image moved | Union, and Russia's ensuing transformation belong |
| to file: | to the greatest dramas of our time. Revolutions |
| pic08130.jpg | are usually messy and emotional affairs, |
| ) | challenging much of the conventional wisdom, and |
| | Russia's experience is no exception. This book |
| | focuses on the transformation from Soviet Russia |
| | to Russia as a market economy, and explores why |
| | the country has failed to transform into a |
| | democracy. It examines the period from 1985, when |
| | Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet Union's |
| | Secretary General of the Communist Party, to the |
| | present Russia of Vladimir Putin. Mr. Åslund |
| | provides a broad overview of Russia's economic |
| | change, highlighting the most important issues |
| | and their subsequent resolutions, including |
| | Russia's inability to sort out the ruble zone |
| | during its revolution, several failed coups, and |
| | the financial crash of August 1998. |
| | |
| | For more information about the book: |
| | http://bookstore.petersoninstitute.org/book-store |
| | /4099.html |
| | |
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Anders Åslund has done for the collapse of Russian communism what E.
H. Carr did for the Bolshevik Revolution.
Simon Johnson, Director, Research Department, International Monetary
Fund

Tuesday, January 8, 2008
12:00 - 2:00 pm
World Bank J Building Auditorium J1 - 050
701 18th St. NW, corner of 18th St. and Pennsylvania Ave.

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OPENING REMARKS BY
Pradeep Mitra
Chief Economist, Europe and Central Asia Region, World Bank
Mr. Mitra is the World Bank?s Chief Economist for Europe and Central
Asia, a region which includes the countries of Eastern Europe, the
former Soviet Union, and Turkey. He was Chief of Country Operations
for Russia during the mid-nineties and then served as Director in
charge of the Bank?s economists working on poverty reduction,
economic management and public sector institutional reform in the
Europe and Central Asia region. He has published widely in public
economics, macroeconomics and development economics, including
Transition: The First Ten Years, Analysis and Lessons for Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union.

MODERATED BY
Branko Milanovic
Lead Economist, Development Economics, World Bank
Mr. Milanovic is a lead economist in the World Bank's research
department, where he has been working on the topics of income
inequality and globalization. Previously, he was a World Bank
country economist for Poland and a research fellow at the Institute
of Economic Sciences in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since 1996, Milanovic
has also served as a visiting professor teaching the economics of
transition at the Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced
International Studies. Morevoer, Mr. Milanovic has served as a
senior associate on a two-year assignment with the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace's Global Policy Program, and he
focused his research on globalization and world income distribution,
as well as the interaction between politics, reform, and inequality
in transition countries.

PRESENTED BY
Anders Åslund
Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Mr. Åslund, known to repeatedly challenge conventional wisdom on
?transition economies,? is a leading specialist on postcommunist
economic transformation with more than 30 years of experience in the
field. He boldly predicted the fall of the Soviet Union in his
Gorbachev?s Struggle for Economic Reform (1989). In Building
Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc (2002) he
firmly stated that the only choice Russia had was market reform. In
this new book, he explains why Russia?s market reform succeeded and
democracy building failed. Before joining the Peterson Institute he
was the director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, and he codirected the Carnegie
Moscow Center?s project on Post-Soviet Economies. Mr. Åslund has
also worked as an economic adviser to the Russian government
(1991?94), to the Ukrainian government, and to the president of the
Kyrgyz Republic. He was founding director of the Stockholm
Institute of Transition Economics and professor at the Stockholm
School of Economics (1989?94).

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the Peterson Institute
The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics is a
private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the
study of international economic policy. Since 1981 the Institute has
provided timely and objective analysis of, and concrete solutions
to, a wide range of international economic problems. It is one of
the very few economics think tanks that are widely regarded as
"nonpartisan" by the press and "neutral" by the Congress, and it is
cited by the quality media more than any other such institution.
For more information, please visit:

http://www.petersoninstitute.org/

About the InfoShop
The InfoShop is the public information center of the World Bank and
serves as a forum for substantial debate on international
development. Our extensive events program consists of more than 250
events over the past two years and has hosted many internationally
recognized speakers including Queen Noor, Francis Fukuyama, Jeffrey
Sachs, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Friedman, and Carly
Fiorina. The InfoShop functions as the only publicly accessible
space at headquarters and provides internal and external audiences
with over 15,000 titles published by the World Bank, international
organizations, and other publishers on development issues.
For more information, visit: www.worldbank.org/infoshop

Comments about the events program:

http://go.worldbank.org/TDG9T8O9K0

REMINDER: "Adapting to the Changing Climate in the Bank on Climate Change" discussed in the InfoShop on Wednesday, January 9 at 3:00pm in JB1-080

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*ADDITIONAL PANELIST* Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development
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| | |
| (Embedded image | Adapting to the Changing Climate in the |
| moved to file: | Bank on Climate Change |
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| | |
| | Curious about the buzz surrounding |
| | climate change talk? Just can?t get away |
| | from it, can you? Wondering what all the |
| | talk on climate change impact, |
| | mitigation, and adaptation means? |
| | |
| | If you have pondered over these issues |
| | then you are invited to come hear |
| | Professor Robert Mendelsohn from Yale |
| | University, who will share his thoughts |
| | on climate change impacts and adaptation. |
| | He is a leading authority on the |
| | economics of climate change and policy. |
| | Over the last decade, he has developed |
| | insightful techniques for measuring the |
| | impacts from climate change that capture |
| | adaptation. Results of his research have |
| | been used to calibrate global impact |
| | models that predict the consequences of |
| | various climate scenarios. This research |
| | finds that climate change will hit low |
| | latitude countries especially hard but |
| | the net harmful effects of climate change |
| | will only become evident in the second |
| | half of this century. |
| | |
| | |
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Wednesday, January 9, 2008
3:00 - 4:45 pm
Due to high demand, please arrive 10 minutes early. The event will
start promptly at 3:00pm
World Bank J Building, Auditorium JB1-080

Note: This button will also add the event to your Lotus Notes
calendar

PRESENTED BY
Robert Mendelsohn
Professor of Economics, School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies, Yale University
Mr. Mendelsohn holds dual appointments at the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Sciences, and the Yale School of
Management. His area of interest is resource economics, with special
emphasis in valuing the environment. Over the last decade, he has
been involved in measuring the impacts from climate change. Mr.
Mendelsohn has also worked on valuing natural ecosystems, from
valuing nontimber forest products and ecotourism in tropical
rainforests, to coral reefs in the Caribbean and Australia, to
measuring recreation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

DISCUSSED BY
Nancy Birdsall
President, Center for Global Development
Ms. Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global
Development. Prior to launching the center, Ms. Birdsall served for
three years as Senior Associate and Director of the Economic Reform
Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her work
at Carnegie focused on issues of globalization and inequality, as
well as on the reform of the international financial institutions.
From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Birdsall was Executive Vice-President of the
Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional
development banks. Before joining the IDB, Ms. Birdsall spent 14
years in research, policy, and management positions at the World
Bank, most recently as Director of the Policy Research Department.

Shanta Devarajan
Chief Economist, South Asia Region, World Bank
Mr. Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank?s South Asia
Region, and also maintains a popular web blog open to public
opinion: "http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/". Since
joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist
and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development
Research Group, as well as the Chief Economist of the Human
Development Network. He was the Director of the World Development
Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Before 1991, he
was on the faculty of Harvard University?s John F. Kennedy School of
Government. Shantayanan Devarajan's research covers public
economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and
general-equilibrium modeling of developing countries.

Homi Kharas
Senior Fellow, Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings
Institution
Mr. Kharas is a Senior Fellow at the Wolfensohn Center for
Development at Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. He is a
member of the Working Group for the Commission on Growth and
Development, chaired by Michael Spence. Previously, Mr. Kharas
served as Chief Economist for the World Bank?s East Asia and Pacific
region, and as Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic
Management, Finance and Private Sector Development, responsible for
the Bank?s advice on structural and economic policies, fiscal
issues, debt, trade, governance and financial markets. In 1990-91,
he was a Senior Partner with Jeff Sachs and Associates, advising
governments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on transition.
His research interests are now focused on global trends, East Asian
growth and development, and international aid for the poorest
countries.

MODERATED BY
Apurva Sanghi
Senior Economist, World Bank
Prior to joining the East Asia and Pacific Sustainable Development
Department of the Bank, Mr. Sanghi worked on development topics
ranging from infrastructure and climate change to microfinance and
agricultural economics. He has also worked in private sector
consulting, for the Thailand Development Research Institute, a
non-profit think-tank, and has held teaching and research positions
at the University of Chicago, Thammasat University in Bangkok, and
Yale University. His research has focused on the economic impact of
global warming in Brazil and India.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the InfoShop
The InfoShop is the public information center of the World Bank and
serves as a forum for substantial debate on international
development. Our extensive events program consists of more than 250
events over the past two years and has hosted many internationally
recognized speakers including Queen Noor, Francis Fukuyama, Jeffrey
Sachs, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Friedman, and Carly
Fiorina. The InfoShop functions as the only publicly accessible
space at headquarters and provides internal and external audiences
with over 15,000 titles published by the World Bank, international
organizations, and other publishers on development issues.
For more information, visit: www.worldbank.org/infoshop

Comments about the events program:

http://go.worldbank.org/TDG9T8O9K0