Expert Team: Transition Assistance Practice Group

Souheil Kaddour is an international expert in institutional reforms, with a focus on taxation, anti-corruption, asset recovery, good governance, and transitional justice. With over 26 years of experience as a lawyer, lecturer, trainer, and advisor, he has worked extensively in fragile and conflict-affected states, providing strategic guidance to high-level institutions and playing a pivotal role in legislative drafting and reform projects that support democratic transitions and governance.

Throughout his career, Souheil has collaborated with leading organizations, including the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights, and Transitional Justice in Tunisia, where he contributed to legislative drafting and policy reforms. He has advised the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on governance and anti-corruption strategies and led key initiatives at Tunisia’s National Anti-Corruption Authority (INLUCC) to strengthen governance frameworks. His expertise has also been sought by the Arab Institute of Business Leaders, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Austria, and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center (ROLACC) in Qatar, where he played a critical role in developing anti-corruption policies, compliance programs, and governance frameworks.

Souheil has spearheaded the development of numerous legal frameworks aimed at enhancing transparency, accountability, and institutional integrity. His expertise in taxation and alternative dispute resolution has contributed to drafting tax legislation and designing mechanisms to alleviate judicial burdens. As a strategic advisor, he played a key role in shaping Tunisia’s National Strategy for Good Governance and Anti-Corruption. In addition, he has published extensively and presented at national and international conferences on governance, anti-corruption, tax reforms, and transitional justice.

A dedicated educator, Souheil designs and delivers tailored training programs on taxation, anti-corruption, and good governance, equipping professionals and organizations with practical skills to navigate complex institutional challenges. As a key contributor to IFIT’s mission, he applies his deep expertise to support locally-led efforts aimed at reducing polarization and fostering sustainable transitions out of conflict, crisis, or authoritarianism.

Shruti Mehrotra is the former Director of Policy for the Soros Economic Development Fund and the Open Society Foundations’ Economic Advancement Program. In this role, she was responsible for policy support to leading reformers in countries in transition and the Refugees and Migrants Investment Initiative, a 500M USD commitment George Soros made to supporting private sector engagement with refugees, migrants and host communities. Previously, Mehrotra was Director at the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative, where she first led efforts to advance reforms with Guinea’s then newly elected president Alpha Conde. Mehrotra then worked with the presidential team in Myanmar to implement change in the long-closed nation before continuing on to lead development of Blair’s work across Africa.

Mehrotra began her state building and governance work in 2002 when the Taliban fell in Afghanistan.  There, she led one of the largest assistance efforts in the country. She went on to direct complex international assistance projects in Darfur, the Balkans, and the West Bank.  Based on her work, Mehrotra was selected as a Global Leadership Fellow by the World Economic Forum, where she collaborated with the G-20 and the UN Secretary General on geopolitical and economic development initiatives.  Mehrotra holds two MAs in Applied Mathematics and Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an executive MBA from a WEF-led consortium including Harvard and INSEAD.

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is the founder Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group and of the Board of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International and Strategic Studies. He has presented papers on governance and peace in Sri Lanka at a number of international conferences and is widely quoted in the international and local media.

In 2010, Dr. Saravanamuttu was awarded the inaugural Citizens Peace Award by the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka and in September 2013, he was invited by President Obama to attend his “High Level Event on Civil Society” in New York. In 2016, he was appointed, Secretary of the Task Force on Consultations on Mechanisms for Reconciliation and in 2017, short-listed for the Peace Prize awarded by the city of Ypres, Belgium. He is also a member of the Regional Advisory Group of Amnesty International for Asia.

Dr. Saravanamuttu is a Founding Director of the Sri Lanka Chapter of Transparency International and a Founding Co- Convener of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), which has monitored all the major elections in Sri Lanka since 1997 and the civil society alliance the Platform for Freedom. In 2004 he was an Eisenhower Fellow (2004) and is currently Chairperson of the Eisenhower Fellows, Sri Lanka and a Member of the Gratiaen Trust.

Dr. Saravanamuttu received a BSc Economics, Upper Second Class Honours degree and Ph. D in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of London, in 1979 and 1986, respectively. He lectured in International Politics at the University of Southampton, UK, from 1984–92.

Ms. Wilkinson is an award-winning development economist producing transformational, locally owned, and sustained results in public finance policy and strategy, financial inclusion, natural resource management and agriculture, and gender mainstreaming under challenging conditions. She engages globally and locally with ministers, central bank governors, industry representatives, and leaders of development agencies, NGOs, think tanks, and local communities to facilitate evidence-based innovation and change. Ms. Wilkinson has over 30 years of professional experience in the economic growth field, including as a leading multilateral bank manager, policy advisor, field researcher, and senior government official in the finance and planning ministry of a recipient country. Betty has worked and lived long term in Africa, the South Pacific, and Asia, engaging directly in emergency environments and in transition situations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Tajikistan, among others. She resides in Zambia.

Ms. Wilkinson is currently the Board Chair of Financial Sector Deepening Somalia, Board Member of FINCA Zambia, IFIT Technical Assistance Advisory Group Member, and Intermittent Advisor in the Banking and Financial Services Team in the Office of Technical Assistance, US Treasury. Previously she was the inaugural Board Chair for the Financial Sector Deepening Network of nine members across Africa, CEO of Financial Sector Deepening Zambia, and Board member of WWF Zambia. From 2003 to 2015 Ms. Wilkinson was Senior Manager and official at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). From 2012 to 2015 she was sector director for finance, public management, trade, private sector, and social protection for the Central Asia group, incorporating Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. She led Departmental and ADB-wide teams in financial sector reform and innovation, MSME development, gender, and human resources improvement in various countries such as the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia, and the Central Asia group of ten nations. Prior to joining the ADB, she worked as Associate Director at the Centre for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS) at the University of Maryland, including as resident Director in Nepal and Zambia. At IRIS Ms. Wilkinson led major initiatives to develop model frameworks of small enterprise, agribusiness, and finance legislation. She developed key policy enhancement initiatives in countries such as China, Nepal, Russia, and South Africa.

Recent engagements have involved evidence-based traditional chief successes in local savings and lending groups, introduction of national financial education curricula and national financial inclusion strategies, gender mainstreaming in agriculture and SMEs, climate change and work on carbon credits and green economy policy, and addressing poverty and risk concerns with blended local programmes in finance, sustainable energy, and conservation agriculture in challenging locales.

She holds a BA in Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara and an MS (abd) in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, along with recent international course certifications in Board Risk and Fiduciary Operations, Digital Money, Last Mile Agricultural Finance, and as a Gender Equality Changemaker.