Deborah Wetzel

Deborah Wetzel is the Senior Director for the Governance Global Practice. Most recently, Ms. Wetzel was the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank from August 2015 to March 2016. She also served as World Bank Country Director for Brazil from April 2012 to July 2015. Prior to her assignment in Brazil, Ms. Wetzel worked as the World Bank Group’s Chief of Staff in Washington from 2012 to 2014. She has also served as Director for Governance and Public Sector in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, directing the Bank’s work on taxation, public expenditures, decentralization, public sector reform and strengthening governance and anti-corruption. From 2006 to 2009, she led the World Bank’s Economic and Public Sector Programs in Brazil. During that period she developed numerous programs with state and federal governments to help improve the effectiveness of public expenditures and achieve better results.

Ms. Wetzel began her career at the World Bank in 1986 as a Consultant, joining the Young Professionals Program in 1993. She also worked at the Centre for the Study of African Economies in Oxford, England in the early 1990s. During her career, she has worked in Central and Eastern Europe, Ghana, Hungary, Ukraine, Vietnam, Russia, the former Soviet Republics, West Africa and Zambia. Ms. Wetzel has a D.Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford and a Masters in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. Her BA is from Smith College. She is the author of publications on fiscal decentralization, public finance, governance, and sub-national affairs.