Biography of Peter Harrold

Mr. Peter Harrold   Country Director Central European and the Baltic Countries Europe and Central Asia Region The World Bank

Peter Harrold, UK national, became Country Director for Central Europe and the Baltic Countries in January, 2010.

Until December 2009, Mr. Harrold was the Director of Operations Services in the Operations Policy and Country Services Vice-Presidency where he was in charge of policies governing all investment lending for the World Bank with the particular focus on reform of the investment lending policy framework, the Implementation Plan for the Governance and Anticorruption Strategy and reform of disclosure policies. During Mr. Harrold’s four year tenure in the Operations Policy and Country Services he oversaw the introduction of the “Rapid Response” policy, the reform of investment lending, the introduction of the Use of country Systems Pilot for International Procurement, and the introduction of the new Access to Information Policy.  

Mr. Harrold joined the World Bank in 1981 as a Young Professional and since then he held various positions in different regions. Between 1982 and 1986 he was Country Economist for Jamaica leading the Bank’s economic work and adjustment operations. For the next seven years he had successful assignments as Senior Economist, Resident Senior Economist and Principal Economist for China where he was responsible for the economic work program and major advice on economic reform issues, including the formulation of “soft-landing” anti-inflation program in 1993. Between 1993 and 1996 as Economic Adviser in Africa Technical Department, Mr. Harrold was, among others responsible for guiding the Africa Region’s work on public expenditure and sector-wide approaches which led to the widespread use of SWAps in particular in the education and health sectors.   In 1996 he was appointed Manager for the Macroeconomics Group for West Africa, covering Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, The Gambia, Mauritania, Sao Tome/Principe, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia. Then, in 1997 he was selected as Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone and in 2002 he became Country Director for Sri-Lanka. During his overall nine-year tenure as Country Director, Harrold would perhaps be best remembered first for innovative approaches to partnerships, and then for his leadership in conflict situations and crises, first as Sierra Leone began to emerge from one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa, and then as Sri Lanka first attempted a peace process in its long civil war and then was hit by the devastating Tsunami at the end of 2004.  Sierra Leone saw the first Bank attempt to support demobilization and reintegration, while Sri Lanka saw the first program to resettle citizens displaced by internal conflict. Peter Harrold holds a Master Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford and Master Degree in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Manchester. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Harrold was the Economic Assistant/ Senior Economic Assistant in the Ministry of Overseas Development, UK and then Chief Economist of the Government of the Republic of Seychelles.

He is fluent in English and French.