Development and Welfare Policy in South Asia

Deepta Chopra is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, UK. She focuses on policy processes, and has extensive experience in managing, designing, and understanding social protection and livelihoods programmes. Her work has primarily been on examining policy processes through the formation of a landmark legislation, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India. Her expertise on state-society interactions has allowed her to engage with issues of power and participation and examine efforts to address poverty and vulnerability from the unique perspective of policy. Her current research interests include a focus on gendered political economy analysis of policies on unpaid care work; the design, implementation, and monitoring of rights-based policies (specifically public works); and policy diffusion of social protection policies across South Asia.Gabriele Koehler is a senior research associate with UNRISD in Geneva and a development economist based in Munich. She studied at the universities of Munich, Tübingen, Regensburg, and Ottawa and has worked in senior positions with the United Nations at ESCAP, UNCTAD, UNDP, and UNICEF. She serves on several advisory boards in the field of international development, including the German UN Association (DGVN) and Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF). Her advisory work and research interests include the development agenda beyond 2015; human rights and human security; employment and decent work; and social policy and social protection in South and Southeast Asia.