Economic Research Forum (ERF)

Stephane Guimbert

Author

Stephane Guimbert
Division Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti, The World Bank

Stephane Guimbert was appointed Division Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, effective August 1, 2023. Prior to this assignment, Guimbert was the Bank’s Operations Policy Director in the Operations Policy and Country Services Vice Presidency (OPCS). In this role, he led the Bank’s operations policy reform and interpretation for all financing instruments. He co-led the coordination of the IDA/IBRD COVID-19 vaccines program, the steering of the new Country Climate and Development Reports, and the methodology for Paris Alignment of all IDA/IBRD financing flows. He also established a coordination mechanism with other multilateral development banks (MDBs) on operational policies and strengthened the partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In his previous position as Director of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) Resource Mobilization and IBRD Corporate Finance department, he headed the team preparing and negotiating IDA replenishment strategies and policies, and coordinating their implementation across the institution. He managed the transformation of the IDA financial model and the creation of the IDA Private Sector Window. He also led the corporate finance function for the IDA and World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) balance sheets, including for the 2018 IBRD capital increase. He joined the World Bank in 2001, leading projects and analytical work in areas such as economic management, public finance management, private sector development, governance and trade. His work has taken him to Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Nepal, and Thailand. Prior to joining the Bank, he was economist at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in France, working on trade and tax policy. He holds Masters degrees from Ecole Polytechnique, ENSAE Paris and the Sorbonne University.

Content by this Author

Empowering Egypt’s young people for the future of work

Egypt’s most urgent priority is creating more and better jobs for its growing youth population. This column reports on the first Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at Cairo University to confront the country’s labour market challenge. The conversation explored why youth inclusion matters, what the data show and how dialogue and the forthcoming Country Economic Memorandum can inform practical pathways to accelerate job creation.

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Arab youth and the future of work

The Arab region’s labour markets are undergoing a triple transformation: demographic, digital and green. As this column explains, whether these forces evolve into engines of opportunity or drivers of exclusion for young people will hinge on how swiftly and coherently policy-makers can align education, technology and employment systems to foster adaptive skills, inclusive institutions and innovation-led pathways to decent work.

Digitalising governance in MENA: opportunities for social justice

Can digital governance promote social justice in MENA – or does it risk deepening inequality and exclusion? This column examines the evolution of digital governance in three sub-regions – Egypt, Jordan and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council – highlighting how data practices, transparency mechanisms and citizen trust shape the social outcomes of technological reform.

Wrong finance in a broken multilateral system: red flags from COP30-Belém

With the latest global summit on climate action recently wrapped up, ambitious COP pledges and initiatives continue to miss delivery due to inadequate commitments, weak operationalisation and unclear reporting systems. As this column reports, flows of climate finance remain skewed: loans over grants; climate mitigation more than climate adaptation; and weak accountability across mechanisms. Without grant-based finance, debt relief, climate-adjusted lending and predictable multilateral flows, implementation of promises will fail.

Why political connections are driving business confidence in MENA

This column reports the findings of a new study of how the political ties of firms in the Middle East and North Africa boost business confidence. The research suggests that this optimism is primarily driven by networked access to credit and lobbying, underscoring the need for greater transparency and institutional reform in corporate governance.

Empowering Egypt’s young people for the future of work

Egypt’s most urgent priority is creating more and better jobs for its growing youth population. This column reports on the first Development Dialogue, an ERF–World Bank joint initiative, which brought together students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders at Cairo University to confront the country’s labour market challenge. The conversation explored why youth inclusion matters, what the data show and how dialogue and the forthcoming Country Economic Memorandum can inform practical pathways to accelerate job creation.




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