Karin Schelzig

Dr. Karin Schelzig is a poverty and social protection specialist with more than 25 years of multidisciplinary human and social development (HSD) experience in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including 20 years with the Asian Development Bank. Karin manages a regional HSD team that designed and delivered more than $2.4 billion in new education, health, and social protection financing in 2023 and implemented a large portfolio of ongoing operations and policy dialogue in 22 countries. HSD programming ranges from support for primary health care in Indonesia to improving upper secondary education in Cambodia and introducing community-based aged care in Tonga. All projects are designed with a climate and gender equity lens. In her previous role as a principal social sector specialist and team leader, Karin led policy dialogue, research, and loan and grant project design and implementation in the areas of social assistance and cash transfers, poverty analysis and poverty targeting systems, the graduation approach and economic inclusion, early childhood and basic education, technical and vocational education and training, community-driven development, and healthy and age-friendly urban development. Karin’s long-term field assignments include Cambodia (2008–2014), China (2019–2022), the Philippines (2004–2008, 2014–2019, 2023–present), and Ukraine (2000–2002), and she has extensive country experience in Indonesia, the Lao PDR, Mongolia, and Viet Nam, among others. She holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics (1999).