Masterclass in Collaboration: WBG Voice Secondment Program Graduates Its Latest Cohort

Every year, 30 government officials from across the World Bank Group's client countries pack their bags for Washington, D.C., not as visitors, but as colleagues. For six months, they work side by side with WBG staff, embedded in units across the institution, contributing to projects and gaining firsthand experience of how the Bank Group operates. On June 9, this year's cohort met with WBG President Ajay Banga - a milestone moment before they prepare to graduate at the end of June and carry their experience back home.

The Voice Secondment Program (VSP), established by the Board of Directors in 2004, is one of the WBG's most distinctive capacity-building initiatives. Managed by the Board and administered by the Corporate Secretariat, the program selects mid-career government officials, primarily from Small Island Developing States, fragile and conflict-affected settings, and low- and middle-income countries, through a competitive process. Since its founding, the VSP has hosted 462 participants from 130 countries. Alumni have gone on to become Ministers of Finance, Deputy Ministers, Chief Economists, and Permanent Secretaries. Others have joined the WBG Board as advisors.

The program's premise is simple but powerful: immersion works. Rather than learn about the WBG from a distance, the VSP brings participants from ministries of finance and other government agencies directly into the institution so they can engage with WBG operational procedures, policies, and instruments first-hand. This insider perspective not only deepens technical understanding but also enables participants to translate WBG processes and priorities more effectively back to their home institutions, including helping them better brief and prepare their ministers for global engagements such as the Spring and Annual Meetings. During their time in DC, the group had the opportunity to meet with some of our partners, including visits to the United Nations and the IMF.

For this year's cohort, that immersion has been transformative. Aishwarya Menon described her placement as "a masterclass in global collaboration," learning to view projects through what she called "the 'People' lens - to understand human development impacts." Naemi Shidhudhu highlighted how the experience deepened her appreciation for evidence-based policymaking, noting the importance of "grounding policy decisions in rigorous data and analytical evidence" while keeping implementation at the center.

For Mohamed Samir, the defining feature was the reciprocity of the experience - the sense that learning flowed in both directions. "The most effective approaches are always those that start from local realities, never from prefabricated models." He also urged the WBG to view smaller states like his home country, the Comoros, not merely as aid recipients but as "genuine sources of knowledge."

Likewise, Naemi Shidhudhu echoed this from another angle, advocating for development support that is "carefully tailored to each country's specific structural constraints, institutional capacity, and development priorities" - a perspective sharpened, she noted, by seeing how the Bank Group actually works from the inside.

Donna Samantha Sandy joined the program without prior exposure to the WBG. She has since participated in missions to client countries in the LAC region, gaining "first-hand insight into how the Bank Group plans and executes its goals." She now looks forward to mentoring future secondees herself - and shares that bringing the WBG Knowledge Bank by introducing basic WBG courses into secondary and tertiary education in client countries could deepen understanding of the WBG's work.

Finally, the opportunity to connect with WBG colleagues has been a recurring theme across this year's VSP group. Nijrad Rodsangnon and Gordana Stanisic pointed to the opportunities to connect with World Bank Group staff and executives as one of the program's most valuable dimensions, describing an environment where learning happens not just in formal settings but through every conversation and collaboration.

As the 2026 VSP cohort prepares to graduate and return to their home institutions, they leave behind a stronger link between the WBG and the countries it serves. In turn they take with them a network, new perspectives, and an insider's understanding of how development finance gets made. The VSP's alumni are not just program graduates. They are, as the program has always intended, future leaders.