Mohammad Pournik retired from UNDP in February 2013. He served as Poverty Practice Leader at the UNDP regional centre for Arab States in Cairo from August 2009, where he provided substantive guidance to UNDP Country Offices in the Arab region on how best to respond to challenges of socio-economic development. For most of his professional life in the United Nations system, Mohammad Pournik worked on issues pertaining to political economy of sustainable development and poverty reduction. He joined UNDP Iran in 1984 and has since worked in Laos, New York, Nepal, Sudan and Yemen. In Nepal he was the regional coordinator for the South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme, a multi-country intervention to link social mobilization at the local level with a supportive macro policy framework for poverty reduction and active engagement of hitherto excluded groups into mainline economic activities. In Sudan he served as Senior Economist and Poverty Reduction Advisor, while in Yemen he was the Principal Economic and Governance Advisor focussing on the links between governance systems and developmental outcomes. Prior to joining the UN he served briefly with the Iranian Plan and Budget Organization after several years of private sector experience. Mohammad Pournik received his academic training as an economist at the American University in Washington, D.C., the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London and the University of Sussex, respectively at doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s levels.
Sudan’s economy was in a fragile state even before Covid-19 and the lockdown measures implemented to control the virus. This column outlines the bold yet practical reforms that are needed to help the country move to a virtuous cycle of rising productivity and incomes – and hence sustained reduction in poverty.