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AUTHOR
Abdo S. Yazbeck
Health Sector Manager, ECA Human Development, World Bank:
Mr. Yazbeck was previously the Program Leader and Lead Health
Economist for WBI's Health and AIDS Team. He joined WBI after
working in the South Asia region on health projects and health
sector policy research in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the
Maldives. He served as a Coordinator of the Health and Poverty
Thematic Group of the Human Development Network,): which worked on
improving the poverty focus of the World Bank financed projects and
on assisting country clients in the development of Poverty Reduction
Strategy papers and programs. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr.
Yazbeck worked in the private sector and in academia. Among his
co-authored or co-edited books are: Better Health Systems for
India's Poor, Health Policy Research in South Asia, and Reaching the
Poor with HNP Services.
CO-CHAIRS
Ariel Fiszbein
Chief Economist, Human Development Network, World Bank
Mr. Fiszbein was previously the Lead Economist for the Human
Development Department in the Latin America and Caribbean region of
the World Bank. Previously, he was Human Development Leader for
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay at the World Bank. Before
that, he was a Principal Economist at the World Bank Institute,
where he coordinated the Growth and Poverty Team. He has been at the
World Bank since 1991 where he has held several positions. His
research focuses on poverty and inequality, education, labor
markets, decentralization and institutional development. Some of his
most recent publications include Working together for a Change:
Government, Business and Civic Partnerships for Poverty Reduction in
LAC (co-authored with Pamela Lowden, EDI, 1999), Fiscal
Decentralization in Colombia: The Central Role of the Central
Government(co-authored with Richard Bird, Cambridge University
Press, 1998), and Reforming Institutions in Transition Societies:
Education Decentralization in Central and Eastern Europe (WBI,
2001).
Bruno Laporte
Manager, WBI Knowledge & Human Development Group, World Bank
Mr. Laporte, a French national is currently managing the Human
Development and the Knowledge for Development Group in the World
Bank Institute. In his current responsibility, he oversees a
number of teams focusing on Knowledge for Development, Education,
Health & HIVAIDS, and Social Protection. These programs aim to. d.
evelop the capacity of client countries to access and use knowledge
and to design and develop realistic and achievable strategies to
address challenges in these sectors. Mr. Laporte joined the Bank in
March 1985 as an Education Economist with the Europe, Middle East
and North Africa (EMENA) Projects Department. Since then, he has
worked extensively on education, training, and employment issues in
Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and East Asia. Prior to
joining the Bank, Mr. Laporte worked as an advisor in the Ministry
of Finance and Planning in Cote d'Ivoire, focusing on investment
strategies in education and training. He also worked in the private
sector, as a Loan Officer for Manufacturers Hanover Trust in Paris.
PANELISTS
Maria-Luisa Escobar
Program Leader, WBI Health and AIDS, World Bank
Ms. Escobar is the Health and AIDS Program Leader at the World Bank
Institute. Before her current appointment, Ms. Escobar was a
Global Health Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, she
worked as Lead Health Economist in the World Bank LCR Region, and as
Senior Health Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. She
also served as MOH Director of Planning & Policy and later as
Technical Advisor to the Minister of Social Protection in the
Colombian Government. While on leave from the Bank, she was doing
research on health financing for global health and on health
insurance as a mechanism to address global health needs. Most
recently, she has been working on the impact of health insurance in
developing countries.
Agnès Couffinhal
Senior Economist, South Asia Human Development, World Bank
Ms. Couffinhal is a Senior Economist with a strong interest in
health financing from a research as well as an implementation
perspective. Since she joined the World Bank, she has primarily
worked in Pakistan and Nepal. Prior to this, the focus of her work
was Europe, where she conducted research, systems and policies
analyses for a Paris-based think tank and later for the World Health
Organization.
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