Melissa A. Santiago-Yan is a Procurement Specialist in the East Asia and Pacific region of the World Bank. With over a decade of experience, she has been providing procurement support for various World Bank-financed projects within the Philippines portfolio.
An attorney by profession, she has developed expertise in government procurement policy and operations, free trade negotiations, and government contracts as former deputy executive director of the GPPB-TSO, where she co-led the drafting of the 2016 Implementing Rules and Regulations of the old procurement law in the Philippines and negotiated the Government Procurement Chapter in the PH-EFTA FTA and RCEP, among others.
As the focal person for technical assistance, she now co-leads the Manila Procurement Team on various technical assistance and policy engagement efforts with government counterparts. An advocate for development, good governance, and procurement reforms, she is focused on promoting sustainability, transparency, and integrity in government procurement. Her contributions to the PH-CCDR and MAPS teams have resulted in significant procurement reform actions in the Philippines Sustainable Recovery DPL series.