Ahmed has worked on areas that included international economic policy relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects.[2] He is an active writer on economics [3] and the Middle East, including as a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.[4]
Between 1979 and 2000, Ahmed held a number of positions in the World Bank. He worked for 10 years on country programs and projects in different regions and, for a further 10 years, on international economic policy relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade and global economic prospects.[6] As Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Ahmed was the senior World Bank manager responsible for the development of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach as well as the HIPC Debt Initiative.[7] He also served concurrently for a year as Acting Vice President for Private Sector Development and Infrastructure.
Between 2000 and 2003, Ahmed was deputy director in the IMF's Policy Development and Review Department. In this role, he served as the senior staff for taking forward the IMF's policy work, in support of low income member countries and its relationship with the World Bank and other development agencies. From 2003 until 2006, Ahmed served as Director General for Policy and International Development at the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID).[8]
In 2006, Ahmed returned to the IMF as Director of the External Relations Department.[9] From 2008, he served as the IMF's Director of Middle East and Central Asia Department.[10]
Between 2017 and 2024, Ahmed served as president of the Center for Global Development (CGD), succeeding founding president Nancy Birdsall.[11][1]