India Country Director, World Bank

Mr. Onno Rühl, a Dutch national, is currently the World Bank Country Director for India. Prior to this assignment, he was the Director for Operations Services and Quality in the South Asia Region of the World Bank, and was responsible for the Quality Assurance, Development Effectiveness as well as core fiduciary functions for the South Asia portfolio of the World Bank. Before that, he was the Country Director for Nigeria at the World Bank. In this capacity he was responsible for managing the World Bank’s Nigeria portfolio valued at $3.4 billion, as well as for the dialogue with all layers of Government and civil society in Nigeria. Earlier, he was Manager for Results and Learning in the Africa Region of the World Bank. The unit has worked to help partner Governments improve their management for results focus, monitoring and evaluation, and statistical systems. The Unit has also put a strong focus on improving the results focus of projects financed by the World Bank in Africa. 

Earlier, Mr. Rühl was Country Manager for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Lead Private and Financial Sector Development Specialist in the Africa and Europe and Central Asia regions. His most important achievement during this time was overseeing the World Bank's support to the creation and financing of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). 

Before joining the World Bank’s staff, he was Economic Secretary in the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC, Alternate Director on the Board of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and Desk Officer in the Multilateral Development Cooperation Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He started his career teaching economics in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.