Laura Rawlings is a professor in Georgetown University’s Global Human Development program and a senior fellow at the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues. An internationally recognized thought leader on international human development, her over 30 years of research, policy and programming work spans social protection, gender, early childhood development and behavioral incentives.
As Lead Economist in the World Bank, she led the development of the global 2024-30 Gender Strategy, the Africa Human Capital Project and the 2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor Strategy. She also served as Program Leader and Team Leader for human capital policy and program development across numerous countries in Africa and Latin America.
Laura has published numerous books and articles in the fields of evaluation and human development, including Impact Evaluation in Practice, a globally recognized sourcebook used by leading universities with over a million downloads. She is a member of the Global Reference Group for Children Affected by Crisis. Laura holds an M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University and in International Political Economy from the Universidad de Belgrano. She resides in the United States.