Charting a New Course for Africa's Cities

Breakout Session #2
12:45 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.

As part of the 2019 Global Development Forum, the CSIS Africa Program is hosting a breakout session that addresses the question of how—against the backdrop of increasing urbanization—African can configure its cities to maximize economic growth.

Featuring:

Emilio Ciarlo
Emilio Ciarlo is head of Institutional Relations, Communications, Opportunities and Economic Development for AICS. From 2013 to July 2015, Emilio served as political counselor for Italy’s Vice Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and helped build relationship with different agencies, non-governmental organization (NGOs), and research centers across Europe and abroad. His research and work have primary focused on international relations and partnerships with political missions in countries like Burma, Armenia, Morocco, and Mexico. In 2010, Emilio participated in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program where he met with members of the Obama administration, think tanks, and academics from New York University, Stanford, and Berkeley. Emilio was originally trained as a lawyer before entering public service. Emilio received his master’s degree in Mediterranean Geopolitics from the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio in 2003.

 

Jefferson Koijee
Jefferson T. Koijee is the current Mayor of the capital city of Liberia Monrovia. Jefferson T. Koijee is the first Mayor to be confirmed by the Liberian Senate since the end of the civil war, being confirmed unanimously by the Senate Committee on Internal Affairs and Good Governance. Prior to this, he was the National Youth Chairman for the Revolutionary National Youth League of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, where he worked as the leader of the young people of over One million around the country. Mr. Koijee worked between 2008 and 2010 as County Coordinator, Montserrado for the Federation of Liberian Youth, the umbrella organization for all youth groupings in Liberia. He is a candidate of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Management of the Stella Maris Polytechnic and also a candidate of Bachelor of Science (BSC) in Political Science of the University of Liberia.

 

Somik Lall
Somik V. Lall is the World Bank’s Global Lead on Territorial Development Solutions and its Lead Economist for Urban Development in Africa. He has been a core team member of the World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography, Senior Economic Counselor to the Indian Prime Minister’s National Transport Development Policy Committee, and Lead Author of the World Bank's flagship report on urbanization "Planning, Connecting, and Financing Cities Now" as well as the recent ‘Africa's Cities: Opening Doors to the World’. Somik heads a World Bank global research program on urbanization and spatial development and previously founded the Urbanization Reviews program. He is a recognized expert on development policy related to urban and territorial competitiveness, agglomeration and clusters, infrastructure, and impact evaluation, with over 18 years’ global experience, most notably in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. His research and policy advisory interests focus on “place shaping policies”, around cities, clusters, and corridors and the functioning of factor and product markets, with more than 40 publications featured in peer-reviewed journals including the “Journal of Development Economics” and “Journal of Urban Economics”, edited volumes including the “Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics”, and working papers. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering, master’s in city planning, and doctorate in economics and public policy.

 

Dana Omran
Dana joined 100RC after spending over 9 years with the World Bank and International Finance Corporation in various capacities. Dana worked for one of the World Bank Group’s flagship publications, the Doing Business report, in Washington DC, where she led the global research team responsible for bench-marking construction and urban planning regulations in 183 countries. She then joined the International Finance Corporation’s Investment Climate Advisory Services, where she advised national and city governments across Africa and the Middle East on how to design and implement innovative policy and technology solutions to improve the reach of public service delivery, increase government transparency and support small and medium sized business growth. In addition to her international development experience, Dana has worked in a variety of strategy and policy roles and has advised start-ups, government entities and political campaigns in Latin America and the Middle East.

Dana holds a Master of Arts in International Security Studies from Georgetown University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Science and Technology in International Affairs and a certificate in Contemporary Arab Studies from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa member and a John Carroll Scholar. Dana is a native Arabic speaker, is fluent in French and conversant in Spanish.
 

Moderator: Judd Devermont
Judd Devermont is the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, he served as the national intelligence officer for Africa from 2015 to 2018. In this position, he led the U.S. intelligence community’s analytic efforts on sub-Saharan African issues and served as the DNI’s personal representative at interagency policy meetings. From 2013 to 2015, he was the Central Intelligence Agency’s senior political analyst on sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Devermont also served as the National Security Council director for Somalia, Nigeria, the Sahel, and the African Union from 2011 to 2013. In this role, he contributed to the U.S. Strategy Toward sub-Saharan Africa, signed by President Obama in 2012, and managed the process that resulted in U.S. recognition of the Somali government for the first time since 1991. Mr. Devermont spent two years abroad working at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria from 2008 to 2010. He also has lived in South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire. Mr. Devermont is a lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs where he co-teaches a class on U.S. intelligence analysis on sub-Saharan Africa. He has a master’s degree in African studies from Yale University and bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.