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.
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.
Lucia manages the implementation of HERproject in Vietnam and oversees our HERrespect programming.
Prior to joining BSR, Lucia was an independent consultant in Mexico for two microfinance organizations serving women in rural and indigenous communities. In this role, she developed an impact assessment model to help the organizations measure their contribution to financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. Before that, she was a financial services consultant at PwC in Paris where she led implementation of risk and compliance programs for multinational banks.
Lucia holds a Master’s in Management and an M.A. in Political Philosophy and Ethics, both from Paris-Sorbonne University. She has B.A. in Philosophy from Toulouse University and is fluent in Spanish, French, and English.
HERproject Team
Lauren Shields
Associate Director | France
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.
This quantitative research by MSC, commissioned by BSR, analyzed the financial behavior of female garment workers in India as part of efforts to improve wage digitization processes and methodology.
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.
HERproject Team
Lucia Flores
Manager | France
Lucia manages the implementation of HERproject in Vietnam and oversees our HERrespect programming.
Prior to joining BSR, Lucia was an independent consultant in Mexico for two microfinance organizations serving women in rural and indigenous communities. In this role, she developed an impact assessment model to help the organizations measure their contribution to financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. Before that, she was a financial services consultant at PwC in Paris where she led implementation of risk and compliance programs for multinational banks.
Lucia holds a Master’s in Management and an M.A. in Political Philosophy and Ethics, both from Paris-Sorbonne University. She has B.A. in Philosophy from Toulouse University and is fluent in Spanish, French, and English.
HERproject and IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, are pleased to release a new brief on the importance of integrating a gender lens into financial inclusion programs.
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.
HERproject Team
Lucia Flores
Manager | France
Lucia manages the implementation of HERproject in Vietnam and oversees our HERrespect programming.
Prior to joining BSR, Lucia was an independent consultant in Mexico for two microfinance organizations serving women in rural and indigenous communities. In this role, she developed an impact assessment model to help the organizations measure their contribution to financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. Before that, she was a financial services consultant at PwC in Paris where she led implementation of risk and compliance programs for multinational banks.
Lucia holds a Master’s in Management and an M.A. in Political Philosophy and Ethics, both from Paris-Sorbonne University. She has B.A. in Philosophy from Toulouse University and is fluent in Spanish, French, and English.
HERproject Team
Margaux Yost
Manager | France
Margaux is the global lead for HERproject’s health pillar and oversees the program’s expansion in East Africa by strengthening multistakeholder partnerships to open industry-level roundtable dialogues in supply chains. Furthermore, she develops HERproject’s monitoring and evaluation framework.
She also supports BSR’s wider women’s empowerment practice by applying a gender-sensitive lens to research and social auditing methodologies and conducting field research in frontier markets.
Margaux has global health experience in program management, design, and monitoring and evaluation, with a particular interest in behavior change communication development programs. Her expertise draws from field experience as a health advisor in the U.S. Peace Corps and social research and program management positions at M&C Saatchi World Services, The Hunger Project, and the International Medical Corps.
Margaux holds an M.S. in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Toronto.
This report examines the opportunity to expand financial inclusion for women in India’s garment sector by increasing women’s access to and use of mobile financial products and services.
Chhavi Ghuliani, Director, Partnership Development | New York; Lucia Flores, Manager | France
This report examines the opportunity to expand financial inclusion for women in India’s garment sector by increasing women’s access to and use of mobile financial products and services.
Lucia manages the implementation of HERproject in Vietnam and oversees our HERrespect programming.
Prior to joining BSR, Lucia was an independent consultant in Mexico for two microfinance organizations serving women in rural and indigenous communities. In this role, she developed an impact assessment model to help the organizations measure their contribution to financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. Before that, she was a financial services consultant at PwC in Paris where she led implementation of risk and compliance programs for multinational banks.
Lucia holds a Master’s in Management and an M.A. in Political Philosophy and Ethics, both from Paris-Sorbonne University. She has B.A. in Philosophy from Toulouse University and is fluent in Spanish, French, and English.
A new evaluation of the HERhealth model, conducted by the Evidence Project/Population Council, offers important evidence and recommendations for effective programming to improve the health of women workers in garment factories in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
