Scott Guggenheim is an American expert in international development and senior advisor to

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

president Ashraf Ghani. He was formerly lead social scientist for East Asia and Pacific at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

. He is also the senior social policy adviser for the AusAID-Indonesia Partnership Program.

History

He was born in New York in 1955. He began his career working for the government of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in their Museum of Anthropology and later received a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. While studying for his doctorate, he began working at the World Bank, where he focused on the negative impacts of large investment projects. He also worked in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

for a few years. After completed his PhD, he worked in

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

on behalf of the World Bank to conduct an environmental assessment for their project of building a dam. He played a central role on the World Bank Environment Department's 1993-1994
Resettlement Review Task Force
" which for the first time documented and public disclosed how many families were officially expected to be "involuntarily resettled" by projects across the institution. In 1994 he moved to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and began working in the social capital-working group of the World Bank. He added Indonesia to a three-country study; consisting of Indonesia,

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

, and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

; which looked at social capital and development. In 1998 Guggenheim founded the Kecamatan Development Program, a $1.3 billion community development program covering 34,000 villages across Indonesia. Other projects include the National Emergency Solidarity and Employment project in Afghanistan, which was the first community development and emergency public works program in the country and the Empowerment of Female-Headed Household (PEKKA) program which supports advocacy and micro-finance for poor widows in conflict areas across Indonesia.

Afghan government role

He is senior advisor to former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The two men have been good friends since they met in New York in 1981. Guggenheim has been described as "Ghani's brain". During a protest in Kabul on June 2, 2017, posters appeared with his face and text in Dari that read , “Ghani dances on the order of this man.” It is said that "his imprimatur is on many major government policies that have come out of the Gul Khanna."

Personal life

He is married to Indonesian human rights activist

Kamala Chandrakirana Kamala (or Nana) Chandrakirana is a feminist human rights activist for justice and democracy from Indonesia. She has been a member of the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice since 2011. She spent over ...

. He is fluent in Spanish and Indonesian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guggenheim, Scott 1955 births Living people World Bank people