Dr Martha Phiri is an economist and development practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in development planning and financing. She is currently working as Director, Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development at the African Development Bank.
She is also acting as Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society Department.
In her role, Mrs. Phiri also oversees public health and social protection programs of the Bank. She is credited for having co-led the delivery of the Bank’s Covid-19 Crisis Response Operations estimated at USD4.1 billion designed to support African countries save lives and jobs and protect the vulnerable during the pandemic.
She led the design of the Strategy for Quality Health Infrastructure in Africa (2022-2030), a historic first for the Bank and the Skills for Employability and productivity in Africa (2022-2026) to support implementation of the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy.
Previously, she worked for the African Development Bank as Country Manager in Rwanda and as Country Economist for Malawi, Mauritius and Namibia. As Country Manager She led Bank teams in conducting country dialogue, designing, and supervising the implementation of both sovereign and no sovereign funded operations and providing technical and knowledge advisory services to support reforms.
As a Country Economist, she was instrumental in designing Bank strategies that sought to address structural bottlenecks while leveraging opportunities to drive job-creating growth in different country income groups in line with national development priorities.
She has published as lead author several African Economic Outlook country notes and conducted several Country Policy and Institutional Assessments and Country Risk Assessments.
Prior to joining the Bank, Mrs. Phiri worked as an Economist in the Malawi Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning and Development. A Commonwealth Scholar, Mrs. Phiri holds a PhD in Economics from University of Liverpool and a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from University of Malawi.
