Payal Dalal, Senior Vice President, Social Impact, International Markets, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth; Christine Svarer, Director, HERproject
In a new report, HERproject and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth share lessons and insights from Digital Wages programs that can help companies, governments, and financial service providers scale up digital payments for low-income workers after COVID-19.
Ella manages the HERfinance Digital Wages program, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program supports ready made garment factories to digitize wage payments for 150,000 workers—mainly women—in Bangladesh and India.
Before joining BSR, Ella was partnership manager on CARE International UK’s private-sector engagement team, working closely with companies including Barclays, Mondelez International, and GSK to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and deliver business and social impact, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ella also spent three years as a VSO fundraising advisor in India working for grassroots disability and rural development organizations.
Ella holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.
HERproject Team
Christine Svarer
Director, HERproject | France
Christine leads BSR’s HERproject—our women's empowerment workplace program that brings together global and local companies, business associations, and donors to support women in global supply chains through health, finance, and other curricula.
With more than 15 years working in international development, Christine has substantial global experience in women’s economic empowerment, private-sector development, financial inclusion, value chain development, enterpreneurship, cross-sector partnerships, and social enterprise.
Prior to BSR, Christine was the director of women’s economic empowerment at CARE International, leading the organization’s global work to support 30 million women and give them greater access to and control over economic resources and opportunities. Before that, Christine led CARE International’s work on private-sector development, focusing on inclusive business models and bottom-of-the-pyramid social enterprise development, and significantly expanding CARE’s strategic engagement with companies. Christine also previously worked on building leadership training programs for sustainable development at Lead International and for the United Nations Development Programme. She speaks English, Spanish and Danish.
Christine holds an M.S. in International Development and Business and a B.S. in International Business and Modern Languages, both from Copenhagen Business School. She also holds an Advanced Business Management degree from IESE Business School.
Lucia Flores, Former Manager | France; Lauren Shields, Associate Director | France
This Knowledge Exchange is based on a joint webinar by BSR HERproject and SVRI, which discussed the role of private sector in VAW prevention and response.
Lauren is responsible for the global implementation and quality of HERproject programming.
She also oversees HERproject’s strategy for monitoring and evaluation and program sustainability and contributes to BSR’s women’s empowerment practice.
Previously, Lauren worked at the Social Science Research Council in New York, where she conducted research on migration, development, and human rights. Lauren’s consulting experience includes giving advice on best practices for monitoring and evaluation for the Center for Socio-Economic Development and developing recommendations on the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals agenda for UNDP. With a focus on sustainability in emerging markets, Lauren has led research projects on value chain development and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Vietnam.
Lauren holds an M.A. in Public Affairs from Sciences Po and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.
Mansi Gupta, HERproject Consultant | India; Ganga Nair, HERproject Consultant | India; Isadora Loreto, Associate | Barcelona
In this blog, Payal Dalal, Senior Vice President of Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Christine Svarer, Director of HERproject discuss the opportunity to accelerate the transition to digital financial services and generate positive impact for low-income workers across the global supply-chains, and considerations required to ensure the transition is inclusive, effective, and beneficial to all.
Isadora Loreto, Associate | Barcelona; Smita Nimilita, Bangladesh Country Representative | Dhaka; Jessica Witten, Associate | Paris
With reference to Bangladesh’s rapid digitization program in response to COVID-19, this blog highlights how the large-scale digitization of wages can benefit women, as well as the barriers and challenges that needs to be addressed to deliver the full benefit of wage digitization.
Isadora Loreto, Associate | Barcelona; Smita Nimilita, Bangladesh Country Representative | Dhaka; Jessica Witten, Associate | Paris
This brief explains wage digitization and its potential to contribute to women’s empowerment, presents learnings from HERfinance Digital Wages Program, and provides recommendations for employers and practitioners to ensure wage digitization is gender responsive and that women fully benefit from the transition.
This Menstrual Hygiene Day, HERproject is sharing insights and findings from HERproject programming in Ethiopia and India on the needs that women workers face and emerging good practice on how to support menstrual health in the supply chain.
Margaux Yost, Former Manager | France; Ella Moffat, Manager | France
The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly transformed from a global health crisis into a financial crisis, particularly for low-income female workers in global supply chains. However, companies can effectively deploy preventative measures to support workers and workplaces to protect their health and strengthen their financial resilience.
Ella manages the HERfinance Digital Wages program, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program supports ready made garment factories to digitize wage payments for 150,000 workers—mainly women—in Bangladesh and India.
Before joining BSR, Ella was partnership manager on CARE International UK’s private-sector engagement team, working closely with companies including Barclays, Mondelez International, and GSK to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and deliver business and social impact, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ella also spent three years as a VSO fundraising advisor in India working for grassroots disability and rural development organizations.
Ella holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.
In the HERfinance Digital Wages program in Bangladesh, designed to support garment factories making the transition from cash to digital payrolls, we found a tangible connection between tailoring programs to women’s needs and an increase in women’s financial inclusion and empowerment.
Christine leads BSR’s HERproject—our women's empowerment workplace program that brings together global and local companies, business associations, and donors to support women in global supply chains through health, finance, and other curricula.
With more than 15 years working in international development, Christine has substantial global experience in women’s economic empowerment, private-sector development, financial inclusion, value chain development, enterpreneurship, cross-sector partnerships, and social enterprise.
Prior to BSR, Christine was the director of women’s economic empowerment at CARE International, leading the organization’s global work to support 30 million women and give them greater access to and control over economic resources and opportunities. Before that, Christine led CARE International’s work on private-sector development, focusing on inclusive business models and bottom-of-the-pyramid social enterprise development, and significantly expanding CARE’s strategic engagement with companies. Christine also previously worked on building leadership training programs for sustainable development at Lead International and for the United Nations Development Programme. She speaks English, Spanish and Danish.
Christine holds an M.S. in International Development and Business and a B.S. in International Business and Modern Languages, both from Copenhagen Business School. She also holds an Advanced Business Management degree from IESE Business School.
