The World Bank Group has appointed the Executive Director and co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole, into its Expert Advisory Council on citizen engagement.
The council was established in 2014 to guide the development and implementation of the Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in the bank’s operations.
The strategic framework of the council was designed to give citizens a stake in decision making to improve the intermediate and final development outcomes of their partnerships with government.
Mr Cole, who is one of the first two Nigerians ever to be appointed to the council, said the platform would help articulate and address the real concerns of the private citizenry across the globe on a size and scale only the World Bank is capable of providing.
Cole is one of the two designated private sector specialists on the council, composed of two representatives each from civil society, academia, the private sector, governments, foundations and development partner/donor organisations.
Other new members joining the council are: Flavia Milano (Inter-American Development Bank); Helena Bjunemalm (Swedish International Development Agency); Emily Martinez (Open Society Foundations); and another Nigerian, Muhammed Sani Abdullahi (Government of the State of Kaduna).
