Shahra Razavi

Shahra Razavi currently serves as Director of the Social Protection Department at the International Labour Organization (ILO), where she brings over 25 years of expertise in social policy, gender, and development. Her academic foundation includes degrees from prestigious institutions - a BSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, followed by an MSc and PhD from Oxford University. Her career spans significant roles in major UN organizations, including Chief of Research and Data at UN Women, where she directed flagship reports and managed gender statistics programs, and Senior Researcher at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), where she led cross-country research on social policy and labor markets. As an Iranian-born academic and senior UN official, she has made substantial contributions to understanding gender dimensions in social development, particularly focusing on unpaid labor and women's economic challenges. Her extensive publication record includes influential works on social policy, gender justice, and care economics, while serving on editorial boards of prestigious journals including Feminist Economics and Global Social Policy. In her current role at ILO, she champions universal social protection, leading initiatives to extend coverage to vulnerable populations including migrant workers and advocating for comprehensive social security systems that address gender disparities and economic inequalities.