Program Management Team

The 50x2030 Program Management Team plans program activities, leads consensus building with partners, monitors implementation, reports on results, negotiates country engagement, mobilizes resources and has responsibility for overall programmatic and financial oversight of 50x2030.

Vasco Molini

Program Manager

Vasco leads the design, implementation and results management of the 50x2030 Initiative through the 50x2030 Program Management Team. In his previous role, he was a Senior Economist at the World Bank, specialized in issues related to inequality, rural livelihood and statistical capacity building. Over the course of more than one decade with the Bank, he worked in Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, where he led national surveys; analytical studies on jobs, inequality and conflict; and managed country-level statistical capacity building initiatives. Vasco has also published on these topics in various international peer-reviewed journals. Prior to joining the World Bank, Vasco worked at the Free University of Amsterdam where he led research projects on household vulnerability to shocks, food security and nutrition, and on weather and price insurance for poor farmers. An Italian national, he holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Florence and a Post-Doc from the Free University of Amsterdam.

Abul Azad

Resource Mobilization Lead

Abul Azad is the Resource Mobilization Lead for the 50X2030 Initiative. Azad’s primary role is to mobilize resources with a key focus on IDA (International Development Association) and IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) finances of the World Bank for data production, partnership development and promote evidence informed policymaking in the agricultural sector of 50X2030 countries.

Azad has been working with the World Bank for past ten years; over the course of this period he has worked with different units in various capacities. Prior to joining the 50x2030 team, Azad has worked with the World Bank-UNHCR’s Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement in Copenhagen as a Senior Economist addressing data and evidence gap on forcibly displaced in countries hosting refugees. Previously he served as the Senior Economist with the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank leading on Nigeria poverty work program, including leading IDA financed and trust funded projects. Prior to his posting in Nigeria, he led impact evaluations in multiple countries with Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) of the World Bank generating operationally relevant data and research to transform development policies. Over the years, he has worked with academic and research institutes, and multilateral and grassroots level organizations. He has worked extensively on data landscape and statistics systems, capacity building of national statistics offices, analytics, impact evaluations, monitoring and evaluation systems, governance reforms, policy advocacy and program management. Azad holds master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, North South University and Aligarh Muslim University in International Public Policy, Development Studies and English Literature with foci on international development policy, economics of development, and Shakespearean literature. Azad is currently pursuing a PhD (part-time) in Development Economics and International Development Policy from the University of Göttingen in Germany.

Masako Hiraga

Senior Operations Officer

Masako has worked on development data for more than two decades at the World Bank. Prior to 50x2030, she was a program manager of the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB), supporting national statistical systems in low- and middle-income countries with 400+ grants. She has also provided technical assistance and advice to improve gender statistics in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She was a main author of the “People” section in the World Development Indicators (WDI), managing the analysis and curation of socio-demographic data. Masako holds a master’s degree in public and international affairs from University of Pittsburgh. She enjoys travel, yoga and a good laugh.

Millicent Gay Tejada

Program Officer, Strategic Planning

Gay is a development management and public administration expert with over 20 years’ experience working with national governments, regional institutions and international organizations. She specializes in providing technical assistance and advisory services in statistical capacity development, institution strengthening, national and regional statistics strategy planning, program management, financing, policy advice and advocacy. For seven years, Gay coordinated country and regional programs in Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and in Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean and Pacific for PARIS21. Prior to that, she was lead coordinator of the Philippine Statistical System and head of the Statistical Policies and Programs unit in the Philippines Statistical Authority. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the International Christian University and is a candidate for a master’s in development management from the University of the Philippines. Gay is an avid collector of bird figurines which for her symbolize her advocacy for freedom, peace and self-determination.

Helena Valdenassi

Resource Mobilization Officer

Helena is a Program Officer with the Development Data Group of the World Bank, working on resource mobilization, partnership development, policy dialogue, and country engagement efforts of the 50x2030 Initiative. Helena’s primary role is to mobilize resources with key focuses on World Bank’s IDA and IBRD, and bilateral development agencies’ financing for agricultural data agenda to promote evidence informed agriculture. She is also responsible for country engagement in Lusophone countries.

Helena joined the World Bank in 2022. She has extensive experience in international development and cooperation and program management, including managing statistical projects for the European Commission in North of Africa. She worked for the European Commission for eight years in various roles: as Program Manager for the Emergency Trust Fund for the North of Africa in the Directorate General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), Cooperation Officer for Tunisia at DG NEAR; Program Officer for the Instrument Contributing to Stability and Peace at the Foreign Policy Instrument and for DG Employment on social policies, and for the platform against poverty. Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked for UNDP and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s office in Chad; for the Italian Foreign Ministry in Libya and for the European External Action Service in Brussels. In 2008-2009, she worked as policy advisor on mobility and legal migration for the “Institut de prospective économique du monde méditerranéen” in Paris. She holds a BA in Anthropology from La Sapienza University and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences and Political Anthropology from the “Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales” in Paris.

Henri Gannat

Program Officer

Henri Gannat joined the 50x2030 Initiative in March 2022.
He has been a consultant at the World Bank since 2017. He was working on the preparation and implementation of a statistical capacity-building project, especially on income surveys in Morocco and Tunisia, in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice. Previously, he was involved in the preparation of projects in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. Henri began his career at a consulting firm in Cairo and at a French public agency for cooperation in Casablanca. He holds a master’s degree in international business law from the Sorbonne and a master’s degree in governance and international public action from Sciences PO.

Christelle Kouame

Program Analyst

Christelle has worked in multiple departments within the World Bank over the past decade. To 50x2030 she brings deep experience in operational support to establishing, implementing and reporting for World Bank trust funds. She started her career at the Bank in the Africa Region-Transport department, supporting teams working on large-scale transportation and infrastructure projects. From there, she moved to the Development Economics Group, working with technical specialists who implement statistical projects resourced by trust funds. Over the years, this work expanded to include financial analysis and planning, which she is also providing in the context of 50x2030. Christelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication and a master’s in Management and Intercultural Communications from La Sorbonne - CELSA. She speaks fluent French and enjoys reading and traveling in her free time.

Sandra Stevens-Landolfi

Program Assistant

Sandra has worked for more than two decades with the World Bank, NGOs, private sector entities and UN agencies, in the USA and in Italy, where she has provided professional support to senior executives, managers and colleagues, alike. Her extensive, cross-sector background has made Sandra amendable to new challenges, learning in fast-paced environments and adapting to new methods of work. Sandra holds a degree in Business Administration.