Priya Basu

Priya Basu is a seasoned development finance executive with three decades of experience that cuts across leading strategic multilateral partnerships to address global development challenges, resource mobilization and management, leading and overseeing country and regional investment projects and programs across emerging and developing economies and advising governments on a variety of public policy issues. Currently, she serves as the inaugural Executive Head of the Pandemic Fund, hosted by the World Bank. During the pandemic she led the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19  as well as the World Bank’s engagement on pandemic preparedness and response with the G20 and G7 – coordinating across finance and health. She led the development of the Pandemic Fund, working with a large group of development partners, mobilizing political and financial support to establish the fund in record time with seed capital of $2 billion. In previous roles at the World Bank, Priya led the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, a multi-donor partnership on women’s economic empowerment. Prior to that, she managed the World Bank’s $21 billion portfolio of multilateral funds. She also previously served as the Bank’s lead financial economist for India, and as an economist working on several other countries, including Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Russia. Priya has also worked at the International Monetary Fund,  the Asian Development Bank, UNCTAD and International Labour Organization. Before that, she worked in investment banking in London. Priya brings thought leadership on a variety of international development issues and a deep understanding of development cooperation. She was educated at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and Merton College, Oxford University, U.K.