africa

Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
economic development, particularly in Africa. His specific interests include democratization,
clientelism, and redistributive politics, resource curse, and the long-term
social impact of historical events. His numerous publications in leading academic
journals include “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa” (with Nathan
Nunn), forthcoming in the American Economic Review; “The Paradox of “Warlord”
Democracy: A Theoretical Investigation,” in the American Political Science Review
(2004); and “Clientelism and Voting Behavior: A Field Experiment in Benin,” World
Politics (2003). Professor Wantchekon is a member of the Executive Committee of
the Afrobarometer Network, as well as of the Ibrahim Index Technical Committee
of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which supports good governance and great leadership
in Africa. He is the founder of the Institute for Empirical Research in Political
Economy based in Cotonou, Benin and the Africa School of Economics in the city
of Abomey Calavi, Benin, set to open in 2014. He received his PhD in Economics
from Northwestern University.
James D. Wolfensohn
President, The World Bank, 1995-2005
Mr. Wolfensohn has had a long, visible, and highly distinguished career in business,
finance, and public service. The central focus of his career has been investment
banking and the economic development of emerging market economies. From 1995
to 2005, Mr. Wolfensohn served two terms as President of the World Bank. In that
capacity he traveled to more than 120 countries to help them face the challenges
they confronted on poverty and environmental issues. He led successful initiatives
on debt reduction, environmental sustainability, anti-corruption, and AIDS prevention
and treatment. He developed activities on religion and culture and decentralized
offices overseas linked by the most modern telecommunications system in
the international community. From 2005-06 he served as Special Envoy for Gaza
Disengagement, appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign
and Security Policy Javier Solana, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In this
role, he helped coordinate Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and
spearheaded reconstruction efforts as Palestinians assumed sovereignty over the
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