Habiba Ben Barka

Habiba Ben Barka is a specialist in economic, public policy, finance, trade and development analysis for African countries. She worked for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York from 2004 to 2007, during which she was responsible for the management of the Trade Capacity Development Project for Sub-Saharan African countries. She then moved to the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Tunisia then Cote d’Ivoire. As an economist at AfDB, her work focused on providing Economic Intelligence on a wide variety of economic, political, financial, trade and other emerging issues in African countries. She also provided country analysis of political economy in fragile situations. Habiba Ben Barka joined the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in 2017, where she led UNECA’s initiatives on innovative finance in Africa while providing economic intelligence and advisory support on broader finance, economic governance and public management issues in Africa as well as supporting African countries design and implement policies and regulations aimed at promoting private sector development and improving their business and investment environment. Habiba Ben Barka is now Chief of Africa Section at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), leading the organization’s work on economic development research in Africa. She holds a master’s degree in international commerce and policy, and a bachelor’s degree in government and international politics from George Mason University in Virginia, U.S.A.