Date:
Location:
Speakers: Charity Moore, India Research Director
Sonya Suter, Senior Program Manager
About the Speakers:
Charity Moore: Charity Troyer Moore is the India Research Director for Evidence for Policy Design at the Harvard Kennedy School. She leads research-policy engagements with a variety of entities in India to ensure that research is attuned to the problems facing policymakers and integrated into policy design and program implementation. Charity's research examines how to use technology to improve public service delivery and governance; the drivers and potential solutions to India’s low female labor force participation; land rights; and social protection programs. She holds an M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.
Sonya Suter: Sonya Suter is a Senior Program Manager at Evidence for Policy Design where she oversees the management of Rohini Pande’s research portfolio in India, including a range of projects on environment, gender, governance, and financial inclusion. Prior to joining EPoD, Sonya was the Special Assistant to the Managing Director at the World Resources Institute, where she supported the organization’s management team, expansion through international offices, and engagement on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals among other projects. Sonya also worked as a Research Assistant at ICF International on land use and transportation policy and has worked on research projects in Rwanda and Tanzania. Sonya holds an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BA in environmental policy from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
About the Talk: Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) is a policy research initiative based at Harvard Kennedy School and working around the globe to improve lives by designing and enabling better policy. In India, we collaborate on research-policy engagements focused on governance, environmental and energy issues, financial inclusion, and gender equality – using theory, economic frameworks, and evidence to identify effective policies, and help build capacity to implement them. However, whether studying barriers to women’s economic empowerment, implementation of social welfare programs, or uptake of clean cookstoves, often the real thing we want to measure (social norms, time use, or even real-time air quality) is elusive –because measurement itself is complex, institutions are not set up for research collaborations, or both. In this seminar, Charity and Sonya will share experiences, lessons, and innovations in data collection from EPoD’s work in India.