Mercy Miyang Tembon new WB director for Bangladesh, Bhutan

Mercy Miyang Tembon will start her journey as the World Bank’s (WB) new director for Bangladesh and Bhutan from tomorrow.

Tembon will bring to her new role of bank operations, a track record in promoting economic growth and social development in several countries and a reputation for developing strong partnerships with stakeholders, a statement of the WB said today.

She will also bring 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 with several languages.

A Cameroonian national, Tembon joined the WB in 2000 as an Education Specialist and since then she has been holding leadership positions in different countries.

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

She has also served as WB country manager for Burundi and for Burkina Faso in the Africa region.

“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 enrollment.”

“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,” Tembon said.

“The World Bank remains a committed partner to support Bangladesh attaining its vision of upper middle-income country status.”

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

Prior to joining the WB, she was a research officer at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. 

She has authored several publications on education, gender and economic growth issues.

In her role as the WB country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Tembon will lead the implementation of the WB group’s country partnership framework in support of the development priorities of both countries.

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