Ruslan Yemtsov is World Bank’s Human Development Program Leader for China, Mongolia and Korea. Prior to his current position, he was the Global Lead for Social Safety Nets at the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice of the World Bank. During his career at the World Bank he also worked in the Middle East and North Africa region, and in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region.
He co-authored reports, books and research articles on poverty, inequality, labor market, efficiency of public spending, and political economy of reform. His work covered global (The state of social safety nets in the world), regional (Poverty and inequality in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Fuel subsidy reform in the Middle East and North Africa), and country issues, including poverty assessments (Egypt, Georgia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Turkey, Russia and others), public expenditure reviews (Serbia, Russia, Egypt, Armenia) and rural development (Morocco, India). Operational experience includes working on social assistance reform projects (Morocco, Russia, Croatia, Tunisia, Uzbekistan), fuel subsidy reforms (Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan), food crisis response (Djibouti), local social development funds (Georgia and Egypt), and cash transfers delivery systems (Croatia, Tunisia and Russia).
In addition to his research and operational work, he organized major training events (South-South fora on social safety nets, poverty measurement courses, core courses on social safety nets, workshops on impact evaluation, economic policy courses) and authored several training manuals.