2012 Keynote Speaker

Shantayanan Devarajan Chief Economist World Bank’s Africa Region

Shantayanan Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region.  Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, and of the South Asia Region.  He was the Director of the World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People.  

Before 1991, he was on the faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.  The author and co-author of over 100 publications, Dr. Devarajan’s research covers public economics, trade policy, natural resources, and the environment, and general equilibrium modeling 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.