Mercy Miyang Tembon new World Bank chief in Bangladesh

The World Bank has appointed Mercy Miyang Tembon as its new country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

In her new role, Mercy Miyang Tembon will lead the implementation of the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework in support of the development priorities of Bangladesh and Bhutan. Photo: World Bank

A Cameroonian national, Tembon is joining her new office on Monday, the global lender said in a statement on Sunday. 

Having joined the World Bank in 2000 as an education specialist, she has held leadership positions in different countries.

Prior to taking her new assignment, she served as the country director for the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) in the Europe and Central Asia region.

She also served as World Bank country manager for Burundi as well as for Burkina Faso in the Africa region.

In her new role, Tembon will lead the implementation of the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework in support of the development priorities of Bangladesh and Bhutan, the World Bank said.

She will also lead the policy dialogue with government counterparts, civil society and other stakeholders to achieve country development goals, it said.

“Bangladesh has tremendous development experience to share with the world: it has cut extreme poverty in half in record time and is among the few developing countries to achieve gender parity in school enrolment,” the statement quoted her as saying.

“I have been following the country’s remarkable progress over the years and I look forward to working closely with the government and people of Bangladesh to address remaining challenges,” she said and added: “The World Bank remains a committed partner to support Bangladesh attain its vision of upper middle-income country status.”

Tembon holds a PhD in Economics of Education from the University of London, England.

Prior to joining the World Bank, she was a Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She has authored several publications on education, gender and economic growth issues.

Tembon brings to her new role “deep knowledge” of the bank’s operations, a “track record” in promoting economic growth and social development in several countries, and a “reputation” for developing “strong” partnerships with stakeholders, according to the statement.

She also brings to this position a “unique” combination of experiences working at the country and sector levels, coupled with “extensive” multicultural experience of living in different countries and working in several languages, it added.