Antoinette Sayeh
{{Short description|Liberian politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Antoinette Sayeh
| image = Antoinette Sayeh.jpg
| imagesize = 175px
| caption =
| office1 = Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
| term_start1 = 16 March 2020
| term_end1 =
| predecessor1 =
| successor1 =
| office2 = Minister of Finance
| term_start2 = 2006
| term_end2 = 2008
| president2 = Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
| predecessor2 = Lusine Kamara
| successor2 = Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1958|07|12}}
| birth_place = Monrovia, Liberia
| nationality = Liberian
| death_date =
| death_place =
| party =
| relations =
| residence =
| alma_mater = Swarthmore College
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
| occupation = Economist
| religion =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
Antoinette Monsio Sayeh (born 12 July 1958 in Monrovia, Liberia) is a Liberian economist and Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sayeh served as the Director of the African Department at the IMF from July 14, 2008, to August 31, 2016.[https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/14/01/49/pr16267 Press Release: Antoinette Sayeh, Director of the African Department, to Retire from the Fund] International Monetary Fund, June 8, 2016. She also was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/02/25/pr2066-imf-md-kristina-georgieva-proposes-the-appointment-of-antoinette-sayeh-as-dmd|title=IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva Proposes the Appointment of Antoinette Sayeh as Deputy Managing Director|website=IMF|language=en|access-date=2020-03-08}}
Life
Sayeh is a graduate of Swarthmore College and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she received her MA and Ph.D. in International Economic Relations. Sayeh has also worked for the World Bank as country director for Benin, Niger, and Togo and worked on public finance management and civil service reform in Pakistan. According to the BBC, Sayeh "delighted international financial institutions" as Liberia's Minister of Finance.{{Cite news |date=2006-01-17 |title=Liberian cabinet posts announced |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4620402.stm |access-date=2024-11-05 |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Antoinette Monsio Sayeh |url=https://www.imf.org/en/About/senior-officials/Bios/antoinette-monsio-sayeh |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=IMF |language=en}}
Prior to her term at the IMF, she served from 2006 to 2008 as Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Sayeh was the second woman in Liberia's history to hold that position, the first being Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She said her main tasks were reducing the high national debt, organising the state banking and financial system, and fighting corruption.
From 2007, Sayeh was a member of the World Bank Group’s High Level Advisory Council on Women's Economic Empowerment, which was chaired by Danny Leipziger and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.[http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGENDER/Resources/GAP-Newsletter-March-2008-Advisory-Council.pdf?cid=PREM_GAPNewsEN_A_E The World Bank Group Advisory Council on Women’s Economic Empowerment] World Bank Group, Gender Equality as Smart Economics newsletter, March 2008.
During the legislative period, Antoinette Sayeh moved to the management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Director of the Africa Department in July 2008; in this role, she is now one of the most influential African politicians in the world.{{Cite web |title=100Women {{!}} Avance Media {{!}} Antoinette Sayeh |url=https://100women.avancemedia.org/antoinettesayeh/ |access-date=2024-11-05 |language=en-US}}
Honours
- Swarthmore College awarded the Lucretia Mott Award for Comparative literature
- The government of Niger expressed its gratitude for the support with a ceremony in April 2007{{Cite web |date=2010-12-09 |title=African Success : Biography of Antoinette SAYEH |url=http://africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=847&lang=en |access-date=2024-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101209171426/http://africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=847&lang=en |archive-date=2010-12-09 }}
Literature
- Antoinette Monsio Sayeh: Monetary dependence, payments disequilibria, and fiscal policy in a small, open, low-income economy: experiments with a hybrid model of Liberia. Ed.: Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Boston 1985, p. 383 (English, habilitation thesis).
- N.N.: Interview with Liberian Finance Minister Antoinette M. Sayeh: S “tick to principles”. In: Development and Cooperation. Volume 7/8, 2008, ISSN [https://zdb-katalog.de/list.xhtml?t=iss%3D%220723-6980%22&key=cql 0723-6980], pp. 276–278 (English).
References
{{Commons category|Antoinette Sayeh}}
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Category:Swarthmore College alumni
Category:The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni
Category:Politicians from Monrovia
Category:21st-century Liberian politicians
Category:21st-century Liberian women politicians
Category:Female finance ministers
Category:Women government ministers of Liberia