Ezgi Canpolat

Ezgi Canpolat is a Social Development Specialist at the World Bank’s Climate Change Group, Climate Investment Funds (CIF) with a decade of experience working in international development, particularly focusing on climate change, social inclusion and cohesion, and gender equality in different regions. During the last three years, Ezgi successfully led the dialogue with climate experts and advanced social dimensions of climate change in climate strategy, operations, and analytical and advisory work. She has been co-leading programs on just energy transitions in Africa and East Asia and Pacific regions. Before joining the CIF, she worked in the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice for around five years and strengthened the integration of social development issues in the Bank’s energy sector operations. Since joining the World Bank in 2013, she has led multidisciplinary teams and cutting-edge research programs focusing on social inclusion, gender equality, locally led climate action, and indigenous peoples. Previously, she taught courses on anthropological topics and ethnographic methods at Baruch, Lehman, and Queens Colleges in New York. 

Ezgi holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the City University of New York, Graduate Center. Drawing on ethnographic field research with local citizens and Syrian refugees in different cities and regions in Turkey, her dissertation focuses on discussions about the integration of Syrian refugees and how these discussions relate to the questions of inclusion and diversity in Turkey.