Dr. Vera Songwe

Dr Vera Songwe is Chair and Founder of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility. She is a senior non resident fellow at the Brookings Institution with Global Economy and Development. Dr Songwe is a global climate champion. She is the Co-Chair of the Independent High Level Expert Panel on Climate Finance, where she has supported the governments of the UK and Egypt for COP27 and also for the UAE under COP28 alongside Lord Nick Stern. Under these COP presidencies, they authored the Songwe- Stern report on Climate finance as well the report on Accelerating implementation of Climate Finance. 

She co-chaired the Task Force Climate Independent Group of Experts on Climate Finance for the Brazilian G20. She also co-authored the report "Financing Nature: A Transformative Agenda" launched at COP28. 

She is the former United Nations Under-Secretary General and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Previously, Songwe was the Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation, covering West and Central Africa. Prior to this, she held a number of roles at the World Bank, including serving as Country Director, Adviser to the Managing Director for Africa, Europe and Central and South Asia. She spent 10 years of her career working and living in Asia. 

She holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, a Master of Arts in Law and Economics and a Diplôme d’études approfondies in Economic Science and Politics from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She also was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in December of 2022 and holds a B.A. in Economics and Political science, both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.