Najat Yamouri is a Senior Social Development Specialist for the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region and co-leads the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA)-Arab World. She joined the World Bank in 2002, as Senior Participation Officer. As a specialist in participatory approaches, she was responsible for designing and implementing the community participation components of various water and rural development projects. She contributed to various analytical work on youth economic inclusion and political participation in MNCO1. As Senior External Affairs Officer and Regional Focal Point for Civil Society in MENA , Najat worked extensively on building a sustainable dialogue with civil society to integrate their perspective on development issues into country analytical and operational work. As a member of MNARS team and under the Arab World Initiative, Najat supported from inception the work on the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in the Arab World. Prior to joining the World Bank, Najat worked for the Catholic Relief Services-USCC on community projects and poverty reduction programs and for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation where she coordinated the program on reinforcing civil society organizations and supporting the social dialogue between the private sector and labor unions. More recently, just before she joined the World Bank, Najat led a USAID project on girls' education with a special focus on the social barriers to girls education and the mobilization of non-education stakeholders, such as civil society and the private sector to support awareness raising programs on girls education.