News & Visuals

Ghanaian to head the World Bank's Inspection Panel

​Washington December 21, 2001 – Edward S. Ayensu, a Ghanaian national, was unanimously elected by the members of the Inspection Panel to serve as Chairman of the Panel effective January 1, 2002.

Professor Ayensu is Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of Ghana, President of the Pan-African Union for Science and Technology, and International Vice Chairman of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). He is an international development advisor on environment, energy, mining, housing, biotechnology and agriculture. He was Senior Advisor to the President and Director for Central Projects Department of the African Development Bank. He was formerly the Vice-Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility administered by the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP. He was also a Member of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program Consultative Group which is administered by the World Bank and UNDP, and member of the Senior Advisory Council of the Global Environmental Facility. He held many senior positions including Director of Biological Conservation and Senior Scientist during his 20 years at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. He was Secretary-General of the International Union of Biological Sciences for thirteen years and Founding Chairman of the African Biosciences Network.

A prolific writer and photographer, Professor Ayensu has authored 18 books and numerous scientific and technical papers. He recently co-authored a publication, HIV/AIDS: Knowledge Protects; New and Specific Approaches to Contain the Spread of HIV in Developing Countries, 2001.

He obtained his doctorate degree from the University of London, and was appointed a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University. He is a Distinguished Professor of the University of Ghana and, for many years, a member of the Visiting Committee at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Founding Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. He was twice the recipient of the Ghana National Science Award, the recipient of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History Outstanding Award, and the Outstanding Statesman Award in Ghana during the Millennium celebrations. He was appointed as a member of the Inspection Panel on August 1, 1998.

He replaces Mr. Jim MacNeill who has relinquished his position as Chairman of the Panel, and will remain as Panel Member until the end of his appointment on July 31, 2002.

The Inspection Panel--an unprecedented international body--was created in 1993 to provide an independent forum to private citizens who believe they or their interests have been or could be harmed by a project financed by the World Bank. After contacting staff and Management, people who still feel that they may be affected by a project financed by the Bank or IDA may raise their concerns to the Panel in a Request for Inspection. Since it began operations in September 1994, the Panel has received twenty-five formal Requests for Inspection.

For more information on the Inspection Panel, please visit our websitehttp://www.inspectionpanel.orgor contact Eduardo G. Abbott at 458-2617.