Ayah Mahgoub is an urban economist in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice at the World Bank. She focuses on urban development, local economic development, intergovernmental fiscal systems, regional development and smart cities. She is the team lead for urban and local economic development lending and analytical projects in Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt including the Tunisia Urban Development and Local Governance PforR. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in economics at Harvard University. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked on economic policy and initiatives to rethink approaches to development in positions she held at the Center for Global Development, Development Innovation Ventures within USAID, and the Office of Strategic Affairs in the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi. She also worked on urban economic development in New York City, economic integration of minorities in France, economic development peace-building initiatives in Sudan, and various initiatives focused on Latin America. She is the co-author of a book and several papers on economic development including "Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid with an Application to Primary Schooling", and “Making Urbanization Work for Growth and Shared Prosperity in Morocco”.