Jennifer L. Solotaroff is a Senior Social Development Specialist in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) unit and serves as the ECA SSI Gender Coordinator. She is co-leading the third ECA Regional Gender Action Plan (RGAP) FY25-30 and the development of the ECA Gender Innovation Lab (GIL).
She also is leading a program on gender, GBV and social inclusion in Moldova and contributing to gender and social inclusion work across other ECA countries. Previously she spent four years in the Gender Group, where she focused on women’s economic empowerment in operations and analytics. Prior to that, she spent 14 years in the World Bank’s South Asia Region, where she served as the regional gender coordinator and led multiple programs, projects, and publications on gender, GBV and social inclusion, including the South Asia RGAP FY16-21 and the launch of the South Asia GIL. Her World Bank Group publications include Violence against Women and Girls: Lessons from South Asia, Voices to Choices: Bangladesh’s Journey in Women’s Economic Empowerment, Getting to Work: Unlocking Women’s Potential in Sri Lanka’s Labor Force, and the Uganda Economic Update 18th Edition: Putting Women at the Center of Uganda’s Economic Revival. Her research interests include gender and labor markets, gender-based violence, and social stratification in East Asia, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia. She has published articles in refereed journals and has taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at Stanford University and Yunnan University in Yunnan Province, China. Jennifer holds a PhD in sociology, an MA in East Asian studies, and an MA in economics from Stanford University; and a BA in English literature and East Asian studies from Oberlin College.