Mehdi Al-Bazzaz

Mehdi Al-Bazzaz

• 
  Development Economics, Policy Planning, Investment Programming
  
• 
  External Development Financing: Processes and Paradigms
  
• 
  Foreign Investment, Enabling Environment, Public-Private Partnership
  
• 
  Economics and Institutions of Development Finance
  

• 
  Sustainability, Institutional Economics, Building Market-Supporting Institutions
  

• 
  Project Cycle Management
  
• 
  Investment Decision Making
  
• 
  Communication and Team Building for Project Implementation
  

• 
  Identification, Preparation and Approval
  
• 
  Assessing the Viability of Project Proposals
  
• 
  Procurement, Use of Consultants, etc.
  
• 
  Implementation and Operations Management
  

• 
  Infrastructure Project Financing
  
• 
  Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects
  
• 
  Risk Assessment and Risk Control
  

• 
  Georgetown University (2011- ), Adjunct Professor. Organizing and delivering a module on development project analysis at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, GPPI.
  
• 
  George Washington University (2000-2006), Adjunct Professor. Organized and delivered full graduate course on development finance, capital flows and international project finance to MBA students majoring in business management, development studies, trade and investment policy and international affairs, in programs offered by the International Business Department, School of Business and Public Management, GWU, Washington DC, USA.
  

• 
  International Law Institute, Washington (2005-2011) …Teaching in seminars on project preparation and analysis and project management, and in workshops on macro implications of privatization, public-private partnership, enabling investment environment and others in the Institute’s programs for senior officers from governments and the corporate world.
  
• 
  United Nations (1999-2000) on two assignments. First to review the project planning and development budget formulation procedures and techniques used by the Department of Planning, Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE; also to assess the institutional capabilities and training needs of the department to adequately undertake the project planning functions and the preparation of the Annual Development Budget formulation. Purpose of the second assignment was to prepare and deliver a training workshop on public projects planning and appraisal for department officials.
  

• 
  Joined the World Bank in 1982 as a senior staff member of the World Bank Institute and Regional Coordinator of various divisions of the Institute to streamline and coordinate their activities in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa Countries). The position also entailed constant and close contacts with country counterparts in operations.
  
• 
  As Senior Project Officer Mr. Al-Bazzaz worked on many aspects of the Institute’s learning programs including designing, directing and teaching in numerous activities on investment project analysis, privatization, macro policies, fiscal management, public expenditure, governance and others.
  
• 
  Activities undertaken ranged from technical courses to policy seminars and dialectic workshops for ministers, cabinet advisors and other senior officials from member countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He also participated in Bank’s operational missions to a number of countries: Privatization in Abu Dhabi; Public Sector Reform in Egypt and Eretria; Civil Service Reform in Lebanon; etc.
  
• 
  After taking an early retirement in 1999, Mr. Al-Bazzaz continued to work on special assignments for the bank including designing and delivering training activities on project analysis, macroeconomic management, and other development issues. More recently, as a member of a team designing and delivering a program of training in 2004 on project preparation and management for Iraqi officials. In August 2006 he designed, organized and delivered a 2-week workshop on project analysis and management for government officials in Khartoum, Sudan.
  

• 
  Worked from 1979 and until joining the World Bank in 1982 as a Managing Director of Gulf Development (West Africa), Lagos, Nigeria, a subsidiary of a London-based corporation providing research and consultations to government, regional and private sector agencies in agriculture, energy and industry.
  

• 
  Joined the Iraqi Ministry of Planning in Baghdad immediately after graduating from London University (England) in 1968 with a master’s degree in development economics. A 2-year assignment at the Ministry’s Central Statistical Organization followed by a leave of absence to join Simon Fraser University of Vancouver, Canada, as a teaching assistant while working for a doctorate degree in economics.
  
• 
  Returned in 1975 to the MoP as a Senior Economist and Director of the Investment Screening Division (IED), a new department created to support the efforts of the Minister and his senior advisors to rationalize the planning process by introducing modern methods and practices of project preparation, design and appraisal.
  
• 
  The IED was established for the purpose of working closely with the chief economic advisor to the Minister of Planning. To this end and in his capacity as IED Director Mr. Al-Bazzaz participated in meetings of the Steering Commission of the Planning Board, the highest forum for screening and debating sector and overall plans. These meetings were chaired by the Minister of Planning and attended by principals only, i.e. sector and core ministers and their senior deputies. Worked also a member of the Macro Planning Team on the 1980-4 economic plan for Iraq. Resigned from his post in 1979 and left Iraq to seek work abroad.
  

Doctoral studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC, Canada (1970-71).

Masters Degree (M.Sc.), Development Economics, London University, England (1968).

Bachelor Degree (B.A. Honors), Economics, York University, England (1966).

7203 Burtonwood Drive, Alexandria, VA 22307, USA.