High-Level Capacity Development Talk on Building Capacity for Africa’s Economic Empowerment amidst Compound Shocks

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Location: AA03 Volubilis

 

The event will be streamed on this page.

 

OVERVIEW

The African continent faces acute macroeconomic challenges that include limited access to financing (the “big funding squeeze”), higher debt-servicing costs, limited tax collection, and the necessity to adapt to transformational challenges such as climate change and digitalization. In this context, building expertise and capabilities through regional cooperation in Africa and global partnerships is critical to enable countries to tackle these complex and pressing issues, and reach their full potential. As IMF platforms of cooperation and knowledge hubs of expertise managed jointly with member countries and development partners, the Africa Training Institute, regional technical assistance centers in Africa (AFRITACs), and regional centers in the MENA region (Middle East Center for Economics and Finance in Kuwait and Middle East Technical Assistance Center in Lebanon) play an important role in empowering policymakers in Africa, helping the continent’s young people become the engine of the global economy, handling compound shocks, promoting regional integration, increasing Africa’s role in the world economy, and addressing fragmentation. 

SPEAKERS

 

 
 
Caroline Abel
Governor, Central bank of Seychelles

Ms. Caroline Abel was first appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) in March 2012, becoming the first woman in Seychelles to hold the position. She was re-appointed to serve a second six-year term in March 2018. She is also Chairperson of the CBS Board. In August 2020 she was named Central Bank Governor of the Year by the African Banker Awards Committee and in December of the same year she was one of the recipients of the Global Women Leaders’ Awards. Ms. Abel holds a BA in Economics, with Distinction from the University of Leeds and a Masters in Philosophy (MPhil) in Monetary Economics and Finance graduating with Distinction from the University of Glasgow. 

 

 


 
Sheku A. F. Bangura
Minister of Finance, Sierra Leone 

 

Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Sierra Leone brings 30 years of experience on economic and development management issues at national, regional and international institutional levels.  He was Deputy Minister of Finance 1 and 2 from January 2020 – January 2023, Chairman, of National COVID-19 Response (April 2021 – January 2022) and Deputy National Coordinator (Admin and Finance) of COVID-19 Response for the Republic of Sierra Leone (May 2020 – April 2021). He served as Senior Advisor on the Executive Board of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, USA for a decade (2007 – 2017) providing fiduciary and corporate-level advice on economic development programs.

 

 


 
Gita Gopinath
IMF First Deputy Managing Director 

 

Gita Gopinath is the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as of January 21, 2022. In that role she oversees the work of staff, represents the Fund at multilateral forums, maintains high-level contacts with member governments and Board members, the media, and other institutions, leads the Fund’s work on surveillance and related policies, and oversees research and flagship publications. Ms. Gopinath previously served as the Chief Economist of the Fund from 2019-22. Prior to joining the IMF, Ms. Gopinath was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University’s economics department (2005-22) and before that she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (2001-05). Ms. Gopinath received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 2001, after earning a B.A. from Lady Shri Ram College and M.A. degrees from Delhi School of Economics and the University of Washington.

 
 
Dominique Desruelle
Director, Institute for Capacity Development (Moderator)

Dominique Desruelle is Director of the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD) at the IMF. In this capacity, he oversees governance and fundraising of the IMF's capacity development activities, the Fund's online training program for external participants, the internal economics training program for Fund staff, the Fund’s network of regional training centers, and ICD’s delivery of training and technical assistance to member countries on macroeconomic analysis and forecasting and related topics. 

PHOTOS