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 21 years with the Asian Development Bank. 

As Director, HSD, Karin manages a regional team of 40 staff that designs and implements impactful education, health, and social protection projects and programs across Southeast Asia, with an active portfolio of $4.76 billion in loans, grants, and technical assistance, and another $1.74 billion planned for approval in 2025. Examples of HSD programming include strengthening primary health care in Indonesia, improving upper secondary education in Cambodia and the Philippines, and introducing nutrition-sensitive cash transfers and strengthening social protection systems in the Lao PDR and Timor-Leste. 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 project design and implementation in the areas of adaptive and shock-responsive social protection, poverty analysis and poverty targeting, 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 has held long-term field assignments with ADB in Cambodia (2008–2014), China (2019–2022), and the Philippines (2004–2008, 2014–2019, 2023–present), and with USAID in Ukraine (2000–2002). She also has extensive country experience in Indonesia, the Lao PDR, Mongolia, Thailand, and Viet Nam, among others. Karin holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics (1999).