Vera Songwe
United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission on Africa (ECA)
Vera Songwe is the UN Under-Secretary-General and 9th Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), becoming the first woman to lead the institution in its 60-year history.
She has a long-standing track record of providing policy advice on development and a wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa, as well as a demonstrated strong and clear strategic vision for the continent. She has served as Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation, was Country Director for the World Bank and Adviser to the Managing Director of the World Bank for Africa, Europe and Central and South Asia. She is widely published and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative.
Dr. Songwe holds a PhD. in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research & Econometrics from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. She holds a BA in Economics and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
