Umar Serajuddin is a Manager in the World Bank’s Development Data Group (Indicators and Data Services Unit). He leads the Bank’s Open Data initiative and oversees the management of the World Development Indicators. He manages the teams that publish some of World Bank’s most prominent global public goods including the global poverty numbers (PIP), the World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS), the Microdata Library, and Open Data Catalogue (Development Data Hub). He also coordinates the Bank’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) monitoring initiatives, and most recently the production of the 2020 SDG Atlas.
Umar has worked as a poverty economist for the Middle East and North Africa and the South Asia regions of the World Bank. During that time, he led the World Bank’s efforts in poverty analysis and policy development in Jordan and Yemen. He holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and has published work in the fields of poverty, inequality, and social protection.