Arunima Dhar

Arunima is an Indian attorney, with over fifteen years of work experience in corporate services, governance, partnerships, and policy within the World Bank Group (WBG). She is the Special Assistant to the Vice President and the World Bank Group Corporate Secretary. Previously, she was the Head of the Privacy Strategy and Outreach team in the Data Privacy Office (DPO) in the Compliance Vice Presidency, leading the roll-out and implementation of the new WBG Data Privacy Policy, within the World Bank, which became operational on February 1, 2021. As a new policy, risk area and a new VPU,  she helped create and design an implementation strategy and roadmap, a corporate footprint for the office, and helped design processes, and protocols for the DPO. She advises the Chief Data Privacy Officer on all strategic processes as well as towards identifying key priorities, securing resources and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the DPO. She led the Board engagement on Data Privacy as well as coordinated the DPO’s reporting to Corporate Committees. Aru led the delivery of three WBG Data Privacy days, including the made-for-virtual two-day event in January 2021, and led the updating and roll-out of the mandatory for all Data Privacy e-learning course. Aru has worked on promoting the WBG’s support of the 2030 Agenda, providing advice on assisting clients with the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and liaising with relevant WBG and UN stakeholders to support to work on the finance, data, implementation and technological aspects of the SDGs as well as the humanitarian-development nexus; prevention of conflict, migration and development. She served as the Secretary of
the Board’s governance committee (COGAM) helped to facilitate the delivery of the 2015 Shareholding Review, and approval of a number of Board effectiveness reforms, including streamlined approval procedures and adoption of a new Group-wide policy and procedure framework.