Asia-Pacific Stats Café Series: Measuring Consumption Then and Now – 20 Years since Deaton and Zaidi

Ms Rachael Beaven has over thirty years of experience in government statistics, in particular data preparation and analysis.  She has also worked extensively with governments, multilateral agencies and the statistical community, most notably through the United Nations Statistics Division, ECA, ESCAP, World Bank and Paris21.

Ms. Beaven has provided a wide range of technical support, from improving economic and financial statistics to estimating local population using geospatial data.  She is one of the founders of the Inclusive Data Charter, launched at the 2018 High-Level Political Forum, to mobilize political commitments and to advance inclusive and disaggregated data.  Ms. Beaven also led a programme on monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals with United Nations Statistics Division and established a data science hub with the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom to explore use of data science, in particular geospatial as well as big data, to monitor progress.

Ms. Beaven holds Master’s degrees in Statistical Applications in Business and Government as well as Business Administration, and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Geology.

Mr. Calogero (Gero) Carletto is a Lead Economist and Manager of the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) in the Development Data Group at the World Bank. As part of the LSMS activities, he is also coordinating a large methodological research program on the improvement of productivity measurement in agriculture, as well as a new research program on poverty and food security measurement. His research interests are in the areas of poverty, food security, agriculture and rural development, as well as data collection methods and measurement issues. Most recent research includes publications in the Journal of Development Economics, World Development and Labour Economics. He has previously worked for various UN agencies and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Ms. Murgai is Practice Manager of the East Asia and Pacific Region’s Poverty and Equity Team of the World Bank, based in Singapore.  In this role, Rinku’s priorities are to engage with clients in East Asia and the Pacific at a strategic/senior level in discussions on poverty and equity; work in partnership with Country Directors and other Global Practices to ensure that the focus on poverty and shared prosperity is appropriately reflected in the Region’s operational and analytical agenda; and manage and inspire staff to excel. Ms. Murgai joined the World Bank in 2000 as a Young Professional, and has held assignments in the South Asia Region, the Research Department, and as the Sector Coordinator for the teams on Poverty and Economic Policy, and Governance and Public Sector working on India. 

She has a keen interest and analytic skills in the general areas of poverty, vulnerability and public policy, encompassing poverty and inequality measurement; functioning of labor, land and water markets; and social protection design, delivery and evaluation. In her work at the World Bank, Rinku has had the opportunity to contribute to poverty assessments, development policy reviews, impact evaluations, operations, and Country Partnership Strategies. She has worked closely with Government on issues related to poverty monitoring, strengthening of statistical systems, and design and M&E of safety nets.  Rinku holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Economics from Swarthmore College, and a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Mr. Vecchi is a professor of Economic History at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy, and a consultant to the World Bank. He specializes in the theory, measurement, estimation and history of welfare. He is the author of Measuring Wellbeing (2017), by Oxford University Press.

Ms. Mancini is a Research Fellow at the University of Sassari, Italy, and a consultant to the World Bank. She specializes in the study of living standards and gender inequality, in the context of both development economics and economic history.

Michael Sharp is an Economic Statistics and Microdata Specialist working for the Statistics for Development Division of the Pacific Community (SPC). His primary role is to provide technical support the Pacific Island Countries and Territories to collect and compile census and survey microdata and to accelerate statistical capacity development and innovation in the Pacific region. Mike is the coordinator of the Pacific Statistics Methods Board and he is currently managing projects on poverty statistics (IDA funded), technological advancement of national population and housing censuses (UNFPA funded), and food systems (ACIAR funded). Mike is a PhD candidate with the University of Wollongong with research interests in Pacific food system outcomes of poverty, malnutrition and food security.

M Ali Kemal is chief SDGs at the Ministry of Planning Development and Special initiatives. Prior to this he worked as Economic Policy Advisor at the Federal SDGs unit. He started his career at PIDE in 1999. Trained as a macroeconomist from Quaid i Azam University and University of Warwick he produced numerous articles in the field of underground economy, inflation, growth, fiscal, poverty, taxation and SDGs.