Description

Multilateral development banks – the World Bank and major regional development banks, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – have recently included law and development interventions in their project lending operations. The experience has grown over the years and this seminar analyzes the approaches taken by these institutions in law and development interventions with a focus on Asia. The seminar highlights case studies of projects at the World Bank and the ADB. The seminar examines the lessons learnt and directions in the years ahead and recommends measures that can be taken by these banks, as well as other development organizations, in continuing to engage with law and development projects.

About The Speaker

Suresh Nanwani is a lawyer in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and has more than 25 years of work experience in project, development, and institutional issues in various offices including legal, accountability mechanisms, and human resources in international financial institutions. He has an LLM degree from the University of London. He has practiced law in Singapore in the private sector on civil and intellectual law matters. He also worked as a lawyer on institutional and administrative matters in the European Bank for Reconstruction and development in London. He was previously deputy head of ADB’s Law and Policy Reform Special Practice Group, associate secretary of the ADB Compliance Review Panel, and secretary of the ADB Board of Directors’ Compliance Review Committee.

He is a visiting law lecturer in several universities including Birkbeck, University of London and the United Nations University in Japan. He is Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of New South Wales. He has published extensively on international financial institutions, law and development reform, accountability mechanisms, and institutional governance and responsibility. He is a member of the International Advisory Boards of the journal Central European Journal of International and Security Studies and of One World Trust, a United Kingdom think tank advocating reform in global governance. He is also a member of the Practitioners’ Advisory Board of Global Policy, an interdisciplinary journal which analyses both public and private solutions to global problems and issues.