Bihar’s Abhas Jha appointed to senior position in World Bank
Team BiharConnect
Abhas Jha, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Bihar cadre and senior economist, has been appointed as World Bank’s practice manager for climate change and disaster risk management for South Asia.
Based out of Singapore, Jha will work closely with other Practice Managers, Global Leads and Global Solutions Groups to incubate, pilot and scale-up innovative and high-quality development solutions, and to promote the generation and flow of global knowledge to serve these countries, the World Bank said in a statement.
His mandate in the new role at the World Bank is to “nurture, lead, inspire and deploy a team of highly qualified professionals to deliver the best solutions for these countries.”
He was previously working with the World Bank as Practice Manager for Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management in the East Asia and Pacific region. His area of jurisdiction includes India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.
Jha, a 1989 batch IAS officer, joined World Bank in 2001 after resigning from India’s elite administrative service. At the World Bank he has been working on policy reform and development finance in a variety of countries including China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Jamaica, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Peru.
He earlier served as Adviser to the World Bank Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka.
Abhas Jha is a native of Dhamdaha village in Purnea district of Bihar. He comleted his early education in Patna. He was a student of St Xavier’s High School, Patna.
Jha is the lead author of “Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstructing after Disasters” (2010) and “Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management” (2012) and has edited/co-edited or contributed chapters to several other publications.
