Boris Divjak
Boris Divjak (born 31 October 1972 in Zagreb, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia) is economist by training and an anti-corruption activist who founded the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) branch of the non-governmental organisation Transparency International (TI) in 2000. He is a freelance consultant from late 2016, specialising in private sector development, business environment, regulatory governance and anti-corruption with more than twenty years of global professional experience in these fields. He works with various multilateral and bilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, European Commission, OSCE etc.
Background
Divjak is a macroeconomist, with a bachelor's degree from the University of Reading, UK and the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria as well as a master's degree in International Studies from the University of Reading. Until 2008, he consulted the World Bank, the European Commission, USAID and other bilateral and multilateral donors, contributing to their development programs throughout the Balkans. From 2008 to June 2010 he was the Project Manager of the World Bank Group's Investment Climate Advisory Services in Azerbaijan. From June 2010 to October 2012 he worked as Operations Officer in the Washington DC main office of Investment Climate of the World Bank, on a similar range of issues, focusing on Lusophone Africa and several other countries. From October 2012 until September 2014 he assumed the post of the Business Regulations Lead for West and Central Africa, including the Lusophone countries. He was based in the Dakar hub of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group.
Professional Achievements
As part of the World Bank, his area of specialization was business enabling environment and local economic development. Divjak was particularly active in setting up Regulatory Impact Analysis mechanisms throughout Southeast Europe (SEE) evaluating the potential impact of new business regulation and clarifying cost of enforcement of the regulation. He later worked in several Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, mostly in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, assisting the efforts to simplify the business registration, licensing and inspection system. Afterwards, he led the work in designing and implementing the regulatory simplification programs for the region of West and Central Africa in the countries of IFC engagement. He also managed the program for Sao Tome and Principe, which led the country to become a leader in the Doing Business Report of the World Bank and one of the fastest risers in the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. He won three World Bank Vice President's Awards for innovative solutions and project achievements in 2012 and 2013. His last professional position was that of the Director of U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre based in Bergen, Norway from September 2014 until October 2016. He resumed freelance consulting work since.
Activism
In his Transparency International capacity, Divjak analysed corruption issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the rest of the SEE region and remains a key public opinion-shaper. He has worked on the design and implementation of several anti-corruption strategies and tools both in BiH and beyond. He is also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Adriatic Institute of Public Policy headquartered in Croatia, member of the Advisory Council of the Montenegrin NGO Mans, and member of the International Advisory Board of SELDI network. In November 2005 he was elected into Transparency International's global Board of Directors, where he served two terms until 2011. He also then chaired the TI's Membership Accreditation Committee responsible for approving the institutional and organisational capacities of every movement's member globally and assisted the national chapters in their capacity building. At present he is an Individual Member of Transparency International since 2012, supporting the movement's capacity building and growth and has been elected for the third time into the Board of Directors in December 2016.