![Ms. Martha (Marty) Chen](/sites/default/files/panelists/imageurl20001_3365.jpg)
Ms. Martha (Marty) Chen
Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School and Co-Founder, Internationla Coordinator Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Network
Martha (Marty) Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, an Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Senior Advisor 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 field experience in South Asia: in Bangladesh in the 1970s, working with BRAC, an NGO which has gained world-wide scope and reputation: and in India in the 1980s, where she served as field representative of Oxfam America. In both capacities, she worked closely with working poor women in both villages and urban settlements to promote their economic empowerment. She co-founded and led the WIEGO Network for twenty years. Today, WIEGO is well known worldwide for its work to improve the status of the working poor in the informal economy through stronger organizations, improved statistics and research and a more favorable policy environment. The networks of informal workers in the WIEGO Network have more than 1000 affiliates in 90 countries: www.wiego.org. Dr. Chen received a PhD in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a high civilian award, the Padma Shri, by the Government of India in April 2011; and a Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War award by the Government of Bangladesh in December 2012.