Minouche Shafik

Minouche Shafik
Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
Incumbent
Assumed office April 11, 2011
Personal details
Born	1962 (age 61–62) Alexandria, Egypt
Alma mater	American University in Cairo Oxford University University of Massachusetts-Amherst London School of Economics

Dr. Nemat Shafik, known universally by her nickname Minouche, became Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund in April 2011. She previously served as Permanent Secretary of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) beginning in March 2008. An economist by training, she has held a number of senior positions in international organizations as well as spoken, taught and published extensively on globalization, emerging markets and private investment, international development, the Middle East and Africa, and the environment.

Early life

Nemat Shafik was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1962. Her family left Egypt in the 1960s after her father lost everything during the nationalization. She lived in the United States as a child but returned to Egypt where she graduated from high school. After a year at the American University in Cairo, she went to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she completed a B.A. in economics and politics. After two years of working on development issues in Egypt, she completed an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics followed by a DPhil in Economics from St. Antony's College at Oxford University.

Career and Public Service

She joined the World Bank after Oxford and did a series of jobs starting in the research department where she worked on global economic modeling and forecasting and then later on environmental issues. She moved to do macroeconomic work on Eastern Europe during the transition and in the Middle East where she published a number of books and articles on the region’s economic future, the economics of peace, labour markets, regional integration, and gender issues.

Nemat Shafik became the youngest ever Vice President at the World Bank at the age of 36. She led a revitalisation of the Bank’s work on private sector and infrastructure which improved the performance of a portfolio of projects worth $50 billion and built up a pipeline of investments that grew steadily by $1 billion per year. She also served on the senior management team of the International Finance Corporation where she was responsible for better integrating policy advice and private investments in telecommunications, oil, gas and mining, and small and medium enterprises.

She initially went to DFID on secondment as Director General for Country Programmes where she was responsible for all of DFID’s overseas offices and financing acrossAfrica, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. She was appointed as DFID’s chief executive in 2008 where she managed a bilateral aid programme in over 100 countries, multilateral policies and financing for the United Nations, European Union and international financial institutions, and overall development policy and research - responsible for 2400 staff and a budget of £38 billion (about $60 billion) for 2011-2014. During her tenure, DFID was described by the OECD independent peer review as “a recognized international leader in development.”

Offices held

{{succession box

Academic Work

In addition to her policy and operational roles, she has held academic appointments at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Economics Department at [Georgetown University]]. Nemat Shafik has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books, including Prospects for the Middle East and North African Economies: from Boom to Bust and Back? and Challenges Facing Middle Eastern and North African Countries: Alternative Futures, and Reviving Private Investment in Developing Countries. She has also written articles for a number of publications, including Oxford Economic Papers, Colombia Journal of World Business, The Middle East Journal, Journal of African Finance and Economic Development, World Development, and the Journal of Development Economics. She also contributes to a blog with other heads of development agencies at Ideas4development.org.

Boards and Charitable Activities

Nemat Shafik currently serves on a number of boards including the Middle East Advisory Group to the International Monetary Fund, and the Economic Research Forum for the Arab World, Iran and Turkey. She is also active on the board and as a mentor to the Minority Ethnic Talent Association which supports under-represented groups to advance to senior positions in the civil service.

She has chaired several international consultative groups including: the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (microfinance), the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme, the Global Water and Sanitation Program, Cities Alliance, InfoDev, the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility, and the Global Corporate Governance Forum. She was instrumental in launching the [[Infrastructure Consortium for Africa[Africa Infrastructure Consortium]].

Awards

She was named “Woman of the Year” for Global Leadership and Global Diversity in 2009.

Personal

She is married with two children and three stepchildren. She speaks English, Arabic, and French.