Serena Cavicchi is a Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank and the Task Team Lead for the Generating Growth Opportunities for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project in Uganda. With more than 15 years of experience across Africa and the Middle East, she works on women’s economic empowerment, gender-inclusive finance, private-sector development, and forced displacement with a focus on designing and implementing programs in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCV).
She previously held several positions at the World Bank and IFC, covering country strategies, FCV coordination, portfolio management, and economic analysis in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic and Washington, D.C. Serena provided strategic leadership and technical support to the implementation of the Multi-sector Crisis Recovery Project for North Eastern Nigeria (MCRP) and related Lake Chad regional projects.
She has worked as a Senior Development Officer with UNHCR in Niger, where she helped operationalize the Humanitarian–Development Nexus, including stabilization efforts following the Global Compact on Refugees.
Serena holds a Master’s degree in International Development, Economics, and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), a Master’s in Communication and Media from the University of Bologna, and Indiana University, and completed executive education at Harvard Business School.