Thierry van Bastelaer, Abt Associates

Thierry van Bastelaer is Principal Associate/Economist at Abt Associates in Bethesda, MD, where he provides leadership in addressing a broad set of issues involving livelihoods, health, and protection from financial risk. His work includes identifying regional trends in community-based health financing and other forms of community insurance, and providing innovative solutions to problems of financial risk protection.
 
Prior to joining Abt Associates, Thierry was Senior Director for Innovations in the Livelihoods Department at Save the Children, where he was responsible for the identification and pilot-testing of financial and non-financial products and services that have the potential to increase the food and economic security of poor families.  At Save the Children, Thierry van Bastelaer drew on the latest learning in the fields of microenterprise, microfinance, and food security to design, monitor and document pilot programs that have the potential to affect the livelihoods of children and families at scale. He provided strategic guidance and technical assistance on a number of projects, including rural finance, weather and health insurance, informal financial services, and youth savings accounts.

Before his service at Save the Children, Thierry was the Director of the Enterprise Development Group at the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland, where he provided technical assistance and research targeted at the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in developing and transition economies. He led a USAID-funded project to develop user-friendly yet highly accurate tools to measure the poverty level of the Agency's microenterprise program recipients. He designed and developed IRIS's capacity in the area of legal and regulatory reform for microfinance.  He also established IRIS as one of the most visible research centers on the role of social capital in financial services, development and poverty alleviation; he has written and published on the role of social networks and attitudes in facilitating the poor's access to financial services.

Network role: Facilitator of the Health Working Group

Working group: Health; Impact; Agriculture

Email address: thierry_van_bastelaer(at)abtassoc.com

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