Samantha de Silva is a Senior Social Protection Specialist working across both Education and Social Protection Global Practices in the World Bank Group. For the past four years as Country Sector Coordinator for Human Development Samantha was based in Kabul, Afghanistan overseeing Health, Education and Social Protection programs. She was also the Team Leader for the largest education sector program in the country. Previously, Samantha worked extensively on designing, implementing and evaluating safety net programs (cash transfers, public works) as well as social fund and community-driven development operations. She has also published extensively on these topics. Throughout her career, Samantha has focused on a range of cross sector issues including microfinance, community-driven development, decentralization and local governance. Samantha has provided technical support to over 20 country programs and has worked in several fragile state and post conflict countries including Afghanistan, Liberia, Northern Uganda, Northern Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone.