Pathfinder webinar on lessons from World Bank, IMF with Dr. Shanta Devarajan

Prof. Shanta Devarajan

Former CB Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy

A Pathfinder Foundation-hosted webinar with Prof. Shanta Devarajan will be held on 2 June at 6:30 p.m. Dr. Devaranjan will be in conversation with Pathfinder Foundation Distinguished Fellow and Central Bank former Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, and will speak on ‘What can Sri Lanka, the World Bank and the IMF learn from each other?’

The World Bank and the IMF are important pillars of the international financial architecture. The former is the premier development institution while the latter is key to global economic stability. There has been considerable controversy about the roles played by the ‘Bretton Woods twins’ in the developing world over the years. Sri Lanka’s extensive relations with the World Bank and IMF, too, have not always been smooth. Sri Lankan-born Shanta Devarajan, after a long and distinguished career at the World Bank, will explore whether there are lessons to be learnt on all sides.

Shanta Devarajan is Professor of the Practice of Development at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He was previously the Senior Director for Development Economics (DEC) and a former Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, Dr. Devarajan has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, the South Asia Region and Africa Region. He was a 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. Dr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources and the environment, and general equilibrium modelling of developing countries. Born in Sri Lanka, Dr. Devarajan received his B.A. in mathematics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Previous webinars of the ‘In Conversation’ series have featured former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India Ambassador Shaym Saran on the India and China disengagement process, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka Dr. Faris Hadad-Zervos on ‘Navigating an Economy in an Uncertain World’ and Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, who discussed his most recent publication ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’.

Those interested can register for the public webinar via this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rNW3JLJeTAqCnbkVR8lz0Q or by visiting the Pathfinder Face Book page https://www.facebook.com/Pathfinderfoundaton/