Himdat Iqbal Bayusuf is an Education Specialist at the World Bank, focusing on higher education and skills development in the Western and Central Africa region. Her operational and analytical experience at the World Bank spans 10 years, where she has led project design, preparation, supervision and implementation support. She is a task team leader of the Africa Centers of Excellence Higher Education Project (ACE project), which covers nine countries and 22 universities in West and Central Africa. Himdat is also one of the regional team leads of the newest series of regional ACE projects, The ACE Impact, which covers more than 10 priority sectors across 10 West African countries and 40 universities in West Africa and Djibouti. Himdat provides technical design, preparation as well as implementation and operational support for the successful delivery of the first regional results-based higher education project in Africa. She was also the team leader of the recently concluded Revitalizing Education in Sierra Leone project that focused on improving the learning environment and service delivery. Himdat is the co-author of the Kenya Expanding Tertiary Education and Competitiveness Report and author of the Digital Skills chapter in the Digital Economy for Africa Sierra Leone Analytical Report.
Prior to joining the Africa region, Himdat worked with the East Asia Education team and co-authored a Policy Note on School Based Management as part of the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey. In East Asia, she supported the Philippines US$300 million Learning Equity and Accountability Project. Himdat also worked with the International Financial Corporation (IFC) Global Higher Education team where she led the development and piloting of the IFC Employability Assessment Tool in six countries across Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America as well the development of the IFC Education Development Outcomes Tracking Survey. Moreover, Himdat has extensive experience in basic and secondary education and was the primary author of the Gambia Third Education Implementation Completion Report. She also worked with the Middle East and Northern Africa education team based in Yemen where she supported the preparation, implementation and supervision of the basic education projects.
Before joining the World Bank, Himdat worked in the London financial sector as a research analyst as well at Transparency International’s London chapter. Himdat holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree in economics from Cardiff University, and a Master of Sciences in development from the London School of Economics. Himdat is originally from Mombasa, Kenya and has spent many years in the United Kingdom, Middle East and the United States. She is fluent in Swahili, Arabic, and English with intermediate French.