Sumati Rajput is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in the Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance team in the World Bank Group. She leads the overall program management of Global Shield Financing Facility, as she did for its predecessor, the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF). Sumati was involved in the set-up of the program in 2017, when the trust fund was US$5 million, and has supported the growth of the program, which is now USD$400 million+. In this role, she has worked with task teams across all World Bank regions to develop program concepts for embedding financial solutions within broader risk management programs. Sumati has also worked on implementation of disaster risk management and disaster risk finance programs, particularly with a focus on Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. She has a track record of engagement with external partners in the DRM and DRF communities, building alliances and collaborations with private sector partners and humanitarian partners on operational, technical, and capacity building engagements targeted to policymakers and practitioners. Prior to joining the Bank, she worked as an Urban Development Economist at AECOM, where she also worked on a redevelopment strategy for the city of Miyako in Japan for economic recovery post the 2011 Tsunami. Sumati holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Psychology from Columbia University, a Post-Graduate Degree in Development Economics from Yale University, and an MBA from INSEAD.
