At this event, we will hear from Martha Chen who is  an International Coordinator of the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). She is an experienced development practitioner and scholar; she specializes in 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 Bank and in India, where she served as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh.

She will be speaking to us about her experiences with microfinance clients and the role of microfinance in helping them secure their livelihoods in the informal economy.