Our Team

Said Dahdah is the Head of the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) and Global Lead for Road Safety at the World Bank. Recognized as an international road safety expert, Said brings to this position more than 15 years of development experience, including policy dialogue, program development, and portfolio management in the transport sector.

Said joined the World Bank in 2006 as a Road Safety Specialist at GRSF. He has since held several positions in the transport sector, including two field assignments in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; his most recent assignment being Senior Urban Transport Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region. Throughout his career, Said has led key transport and road safety investment and advisory projects in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, and Morocco, and has provided cross-support to regional transport teams in China, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, and Colombia. Additionally, he has coordinated significant infrastructure safety projects for GRSF, and has contributed to various training and capacity enhancement initiatives.

Said’s recent road safety achievements include the formulation of the Road Safety Requirements in Bank-financed Transport Projects (adopted by the Management Team in June 2020); the development of the Road Safety Screening and Appraisal Tool (RSSAT) that is mandated for use across all transport projects; the implementation of the International Road Assessment Program in various World Bank projects; the development of the Road Safety Good Practice Note for ESS4; chairing the Road Safety Working Group of the South East Europe Transport Observatory; and his vital road safety engagement with several South Asian countries. Said holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Transportation Safety from George Washington University.

Monjurul Hoque Mohammod Arif Uddin is a Transport Specialist at GRSF, based in Washington DC, USA. Arif, a Civil Engineer from Bangladesh, holds a master's degree in Highway and Transportation Engineering and has over 10 years of professional experience in road safety research, audit, community-based infrastructure projects, and driving training.

Arif is currently managing the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety in Africa and leading the World Bank's road safety agenda in Eastern and Southern Africa. His expertise lies in road user behavior analysis, vulnerable road user safety, high-risk location correction, policy research, and traffic safety intervention evaluation.

Benjamin Holzman is the communications lead for the Global Road Safety Facility. Prior to joining GRSF, he was the communications and membership coordinator for the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. Benjamin has also held communications and program management roles in the private and not-for-profit sectors, as well as for other World Bank and UN programs.

Benjamin has global experience, having worked in Australia, Ghana, India, the UK, and the US, and holds a Master's degree in Urbanisation and Development from the London School of Economics.

Demilour “Dainty” Reyes Ignacio is an Operations Analyst for GRSF. Dainty, a Philippine national, joined the World Bank in May 2006 in the Manila office, serving as Team Assistant supporting the Local Government Program and then as Program Assistant for the Disaster Risk Management, Urban, and Water teams. She moved to Washington, D.C. in February 2013, joining the World Bank's Infrastructure unit of the East Asia and Pacific region. Following this role, she was the Senior Executive Assistant for the Office of the Senior Director of the Water and Transport Global Practices in the South Asia Region, and most recently, Senior Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Infrastructure.

Dainty has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics (University of the Philippines) and a Juris Doctor Degree in Law (San Beda College, Philippines)

Dipan Bose is a Senior Transport Specialist with the Global Road Safety Facility at the World Bank. He is a road safety engineer by training with research experience in the areas of vehicle safety and multi-sectoral road safety management, with a focus on designing road injury interventions for low and middle-income countries. In his current role, he supports the governments of India and Bangladesh and the broader South Asia region to develop national road safety programs by providing technical support and preparing and supervising World Bank-financed projects.

Previously, he managed GRSF's grant from the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety program from 2014 to 2020, which focused on improving road safety in selected cities and countries in the developing world. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2012, he was a Research Scientist at the University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics, where he focused on vehicle restraint systems and developing injury risk functions for pedestrians and vulnerable occupants.

He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Faustina Chande is a Program Assistant supporting GRSF on various administrative tasks. Prior to joining the GRSF team, she supported the Tanzania Transport Sector Support Project and the Macro Economic Trade and Investments team in the Tanzania country office.

Faustina holds a Master of Business Administration and an undergraduate degree from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Kazuyuki Neki has over ten years of experience in the areas of infrastructure planning and policy development. In his role at GRSF, he specializes in the research and development of methods to quantify the benefits of road safety. This includes creating road safety calculator tools for assessing the impacts of road safety policy tailored for GRSF's client countries, and upgrading a road safety component of the globally recognized "HDM" road asset management tool. He also supports World Bank regional operations by ensuring road safety is fully incorporated into investment projects, evaluating their economic impacts, and conducting road crash risk mapping.

Before joining GRSF, Kazuyuki worked as a transport planning engineer in Japan and as a technical advisor in Bhutan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

He is a Chartered Engineer in construction and transport planning and holds a Master of Engineering degree in Transport Planning and completed postgraduate studies in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford.

Leslie Nii Odartey Mills is a Transport Specialist with the Global Road Safety Facility, where he is the road safety focal point for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. In addition to providing oversight on road safety aspects in transport projects, Leslie also leads analytical work on motorization management. Prior to joining GRSF, he was the World Bank’s Transport Task Team Lead for Zambia and Zimbabwe, where he worked on rural and urban connectivity, transport sector reforms, public-private sector engagements, and performance-based contracts.

Leslie has extensive working experience in transport initiatives, spanning more than 15 years. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and his PhD and master's degrees in civil infrastructure systems from the University of Delaware.

Nancy Achieng Abira specializes in road infrastructure safety and engineering for GRSF, providing operational support to World Bank regional transport teams on road safety matters. Her expertise includes safe engineering design, road safety auditing, institutional management, and crash data management. Nancy has over 12 years of experience in transportation and road safety engineering, and has undertaken projects in various countries in Africa and South Asia, as well as in the United Kingdom and Canada. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked as a road safety expert with several organizations including TRL-UK, the Institute of Transportation and Development Planning, and TIMCON Associates.

Nancy has an MSc. in Transportation Planning & Engineering (University of Leeds) and a BSc. in Civil Engineering (University of Nairobi).

Nargis Ryskulova is a Senior Transport Specialist based in Washington D.C. She has more than 20 years experience in the transport sector and has worked across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. She has led World Bank teams to design and implement large and complex investment projects primarily related to rural roads and highways, but also related to railways, ports, air travel infrastructure, and urban transport.

Before joining GRSF, Nargis worked extensively on road safety as a regional road safety focal point for Africa, and authored several road safety analytical reports.

She holds an MBA from the American University in Central Asia, and an MSc in Public Policy and Management from the University of Manchester, UK.

Norma Silvera provides budgeting, program management, and administration support for GRSF at the organizational and grant levels. She previously held several roles within the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), in the South Asia region, and in the transport, water, and urban units. She has degrees in Accounting from the University of Maryland Global Campus, and Leadership Studies from Liberty University.