Lecture on Development: April 15, 2009

IDP & SID invite you to the IDP’s 35th Anniversary Lecture on Development

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala*
Managing Director, World Bank Former Finance and Foreign Minister of Nigeria will speak on “The Global Crisis, the G20 & Impacts on Development.”

The Speaker will focus on the current global financial crisis, the recent G20 meeting in London, and their impacts on emerging markets and low income countries

Location: Kay Spiritual Center, AU Campus
April 15 2009, 6:00pm to 7:30 pm
Followed by a Reception
Enquiries: Crystal Wright at 202 885 1657
or idpsis@american.edu
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* Speaker's Background (From Wikipedia)
Education Dr Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard University (A.B. Magna Cum Laude 1977) and earned her Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the MIT.
Career Prior to her ministerial career in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala was vice-president and corporate secretary of the World Bank. She left it in 2003 after she was appointed to President Obasanjo's cabinet as Finance Minister on 15 July.
In October 2005, she led the Nigerian team that struck a deal with the Paris Club, a group of bilateral creditors, to pay a portion of Nigeria's external debt (US $12 billion) in return for an $18 billion debt write-off. Prior to the partial debt payment and write-off, Nigeria spent roughly U.S. $1 billion every year on debt servicing, without making a dent in the principal owed.

Okonjo-Iweala also introduced the practice of publishing each state’s monthly financial allocation from the federal government in the newspapers. She was instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor's. Nigeria is considered to have defaulted on its sovereign debt in 1983 (debt rescheduling is considered a type of default by rating agencies).

She resigned as Nigeria's Foreign Minister in August 2006 following her sudden removal as head of Nigeria's Economic Intelligence team by President Olusegun Abasanjo. She left office at the end of August 2006.
In October 2007 World Bank President Robert Zoellick appointed her to the post of Managing Director, effective December 2007.
Non-profit work She is a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Okonjo-Iweala also serves on the Advisory Board of the Global Financial Integrity Program and on the Board of Directors of the World Resources Institute.

Honors and awards
• Time Europe Hero 2004
• This Day Nigeria Minister of the Year 2004
• Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005
• Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister 2005
• Nigerian of the Year 2006.