General Inspector of Finances, French Ministry of Finances. Former Vice-President of the World Bank for Asia, former CEO of the Agence Française de Développement.

 

From 2001 to 2009, Jean-Michel Severino was the CEO of France’s International Development Agency, AFD. After graduating from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, he started his career as Inspector of finances in the French administration. He was previously director in charge of international development at the French Ministry of cooperation. At the World Bank, he served as director for Central Europe and then as Vice President for Asia. In october 2007 he launched the blog Ideas4development alongside Josette Sheeran, Donald Kaberuka, Kemal Dervis, Pascal Lamy, Abdou Diouf and Supachai Panitchpakdi, in which the authors share their visions, doubts and hopes for international development.

 

Detailed biography:

 

After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and the Sorbonne University (bachelor of laws) in 1978, Jean-Michel Severino studied advanced economics. He then entered the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, from which he graduated in 1984.

 

Jean-Michel Severino started his career as Inspector of finances at the French Ministry of economy and finances. In 1988, his interest for development led him to the Cabinet of the Minister of cooperation and development Jacques Pelletier as a technical adviser. In this ministry, he occupied successively the post of Chief of geographic coordination (1990-94) and the post of Director of development (1994-96), where he advised the French government on supporting the democratization processes in Africa, and prepared and managed the devaluation of the CFA franc.  

 

Jean-Michel Severino then joined the World Bank as director for Central Europe (1996-97). He became Vice President for Asia in 1997, shortly before the beginning of the Asian financial crisis, which he managed at the Bank in accompaniment of the IMF programmes.

 

In 2000, Jean-Michel Severino came back shortly at the Ministry of economy and finances as General inspector of finances and was nominated director general of the AFD in 2001. His tree-year term was renewed in 2004 and 2007. He contributed to the High-Level Expert Panel on the System-Wide Coherence of the United Nations in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment, and is part of the Commission on the "White book" on France's foreign and European policy. Jean-Michel Severino is also member of the board of danone.communities, an innovative mechanism to finance project with high social impact in poor and emerging countries, and sits on Veolia’s Independent evaluation committee on sustainable development. Between 2000 and 2005, Jean-Michel Severino was associate professor at the [CERDI] where he taught theory and political economy of global public goods.

 

The AFD is a financial institution at the heart of the French system of official development assistance. The AFD supports the public and private spheres as well as associative networks. Its aim is to implement economic and social projects in more than 60 countries on all continents and in overseas France. Its action for development is guided by the millennium development goals of the United Nations and the imperative of environmental sustainability.

 

Recent publications:

• Le Temps de l’Afrique, a book written with Olivier Ray, published in French on March 18, 2010 by Odile Jacob editors (Paris). 

• Idées Reçues sur l’Aide au Développement, a book written with Jean-Michel Debrat, published in January 2010 by Le Cavalier Bleu editors (Paris). 

• Development beyond 2015, Op-Ed distributed by Project Syndicate, October 2008.

• Heart of darkness, Op-Ed signed with Donald Kaberuka, published in Emerging Markets - 12 October 2008.

• Creating Value for All, Article signed with Bruce Jenks, published in Parliamentary Brief - 24 September 2008.

• Strategies to fight climate change, Op-Ed published in The Economist Times (India) - 9 September 2008.

• Conservation with a human face, Op-Ed signed with Peter Seligmann, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Conservation International, distributed by Project Syndicate, August 13 2008.

• Kenya: development failing?, Op-Ed distributed by Project Syndicate, January 2008.

• A welcome revolution in Africa, Op-Ed published in Emerging markets on 21 octobre 2007. 

• Feeding Africa, Op-Ed signed with Jacques Diouf, published in the International Herald Tribune, on 20 Octobre 2007.

• Solving the water equation, Op-Ed signed with Mikhaïl Gorbachev, distributed by Project Syndicate in June 2007.

 

Most of Mr. Severino’s publications are posted on the website of the Agence Française de Développement: www.afd.fr/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/home/Presse/ArticlesAFD. His blogs can be read and commented on www.ideas4development.org