The WEE-DiFine team is pleased to introduce the six members that compose our advisory board! Our advisory board provides strategic advice to the WEE-DiFine team and makes funding recommendations for the Initiative. Each member of the board brings broad experience and expertise from the fields of digital financial services and women’s economic empowerment. Read more about the background and interests of each of our members below!
Dr S Anukriti, Development Research Group, The World Bank
Dr S Anukriti is an Economist in the Development Research Group (Human Development Team) of the World Bank. She is an applied micro-economist, with interests in the fields of development economics, economics of gender and the family, and political economy. Her research examines the underlying causes of gender inequalities in developing societies, and explores mechanisms that can bring about gender equity. More broadly, she is interested in the role of social norms, formal and informal institutions, and public policy in affecting social change. Dr Anukriti received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University, MA in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and BA (Honors) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Prior to joining the World Bank in July 2020, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Boston College. She is also a Research Affiliate at the Institute for Labor Economics (IZA) and a Fellow of the Center for Development Economics and Policy at Columbia University.
Dr Stefan Dercon, Department of Economics, Oxford University
Dr Stefan Dercon is a Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. His research interests concern what keeps some people and countries poor: the failures of markets, governments and politics, mainly in Africa, and how to change this. He has worked extensively as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making. He has worked extensively as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making, including as the Chief Economist of the UK Department of International Development (2011-2017).
Dr Seth Garz, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr Seth Garz manages the Research and Measurement portfolios for the Financial Services for the Poor strategy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Seth was a Post-doctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action where he was the lead researcher for a large-scale randomized control trial in the Dominican Republic, evaluating innovations to the country’s conditional cash transfer program. Seth has previously worked for Goldman Sachs and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and has conducted a variety of policy consulting work for organizations such as the World Bank Gender Innovation Lab and the City of San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment. Seth remains actively engaged in research at the intersection of G2P programs, financial inclusion, and gender.
Dr Rachel Heath, Department of Economics, University of Washington
Dr Rachel Heath is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Washington. Her research interests are in development and labour economics. In particular, much of her research focuses on increased labour market opportunities for women in developing countries (such as the garment industry in Bangladesh). She studies how these new job opportunities are changing women’s lives, the factors that influence women’s decisions to join the labour force, and how firms make hiring decisions.
Dr Leora Klapper, Development Research Group, The World Bank
Dr Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Research Team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Her publications focus on corporate and household finance, banking, entrepreneurship, and risk management. Her current research studies the impact of digital financial services, especially for women. She is a founder of the Global Findex database, which measures how adults around the world save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Previously, she worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Salomon Smith Barney. She holds a PhD in Financial Economics from the New York University Stern School of Business.
Dr Munshi Sulaiman, BRAC International and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
Dr Munshi Sulaiman leads BRAC International’s Africa Research, and is a Research Advisor at BIGD, BRAC University. Dr Sulaiman started his research career at BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division in 2004. Previously he worked as the Director for Research, Monitoring and Learning (REALM) at Save the Children and as a Research Director at Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA). He has a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and had been a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale University. He has published on poverty, financial inclusion and labour markets issues in peer-reviewed journals including top journals in Economics.
