By Shaden Khalil
Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, who took her new position in the government on Saturday, has experiences in the fields of financing and economic development for 25 years.
Nasr has held multiple senior positions in the World Bank such as Programme Leader and Country Management, Manager of the Regional Medium Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) Facility, and Lead Financial Economist.
Nasr is also an associate professor at the economics department of the American University in Cairo (AUC) since September 2002, and was a professor at the British University in Egypt (BUE) from September 2006 to June 2011.
She worked at the Economic Council, led by the presidency, to end the debts of projects financed by the World Bank, including MSME, to provide work opportunities for youth to eliminate unemployment and to improve the status of the poor and marginalised social class.
Nasr participated in many business school programmes abroad, such as the strategic leadership in inclusive finance programme in Harvard Business School in 2014, the growth and development policy program in Harvard University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2008, as well as the international finance program in the University of Pennsylvania-the Wharton School in 2006.
She was Country Coordinator for Finance & Private Sector Development in the World Bank from May 2011 to June 2014.
Nasr was awarded the Project Innovation Award from the World Bank Group in June 2010, and the Outstanding Performance in Teaching Award from the Dean of Faculty of BUE in June 2010.
The minister of international cooperation undertook a PhD in philosophy from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science in 2002 and a master’s degree in economics from the AUC. She took a bachelor of arts, major economics and minor mathematics, with high honours in 1985.
