Saroj Kumar Jha appointed to key World Bank position

WASHINGTON: An Indian has been appointed to a key position in the World Bank with President Jim Young Kim assigning him a role to provide strategic leadership to address the challenge of fragility, conflict and violence.

Saroj Kumar Jha is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Jha till last week was World Bank's Regional Director for Central Asia based in Almaty since February 2012.

Jha assumed the position of Senior Director for the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group at the World Bank yesterday.

Jha has been tasked by World Bank President Jim Young Kim to provide strategic leadership to address the challenge of fragility, conflict and violence, working across the Bank Group and in close collaboration with partners.

An Indian national, Jha joined the World Bank in 2005 as a Senior Infrastructure Specialist in the Sustainable Development Network, after significant experience with the Indian Government and the United Nation's Development Program ( UNDP) as a senior executive in the field of public sector management, infrastructure financing, natural resources management, natural disaster prevention and environmental sustainability.

He supported transformative innovations in regional cooperation, water and energy security, social safety nets, inclusive governance and grievance redress mechanisms in various regions of the world.

Earlier, Jha worked as the World Bank's Global Manager for Disaster Risk Management Practice.

He also served as head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, now the world's largest global fund for disaster prevention and post-disaster recovery operations.

In addition, he has led international response efforts to many global catastrophic disasters, the bank said.