Frontline with Faculty Series

Informal Workers in a Global Economy: Recent Trends, Current Debates, & Future Policies

MARTHA CHEN | Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School;
International Coordinator, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

Tuesday, November 6
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Belfer, Weil Town Hall, Lobby Level
Harvard Kennedy School

Dr. Chen will present recent national data on the size and composition of the informal workforce, summarize current debates on the informal economy, and outline an integrated policy response to informality.

Dr. Martha Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and International Coordinator of the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialization are employment, gender, and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy. Before joining Harvard in 1987, she had two decades of resident experience in Bangladesh working with BRAC (now the world’s largest non-governmental organization), and in India where she served as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh. Dr. Chen received a Ph.D. in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of numerous books including The Progress of the Worlds Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty (co-authored with Joann Vanek, Francie Lund, James Heintz, Renana Jhabvala and Chris Bonner), Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction (co-authored with Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr), Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (co-authored with Joann Vanek) and Perpetual Mourning: Widowhood in Rural India. Dr. Chen was awarded a high civilian award, the Padma Shri, by the Government of India in April 2011.

All Frontline with Faculty seminars are open to the public.

The Frontline with Faculty Series is a venue for Harvard faculty affiliated with the Hauser Center to share their work and research with faculty colleagues, as well as students in an informal setting that will allow for spirited discussion, debate and exchange. The seminars link faculty experts from Harvard Schools and beyond on a wide range of topics.  The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University seeks to expand understanding and accelerate critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy makers and the general public, by encouraging scholarship, developing curriculum, fostering mutual learning between academics and practitioners, and shaping policies that enhance the sector and its role in society.

Tagged as: 2012, Informal Economy, Informal Workforce