Person:
Das, Maitreyi Bordia
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Demography,
Social Protection,
Social Development,
Human Development,
Social Inclusion,
Safety Nets,
Equity,
Labor Markets,
Urban Development
Degrees
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
April 3, 2023
Biography
Maitreyi Bordia Das is the Director for Trust Funds and Partner Relations in the Development Finance Vice Presidency of the World Bank. Based in Washington DC, she leads the furtherance of the World Bank’s trust fund reform, implementation of the Bank’s policy framework for financial intermediary funds (FIFs) and supports the ongoing World Bank Group Evolution process. Maitreyi is a leading voice to sustainable development, equity and inclusion, with a career that spans government, academia, the UN system and the World Bank. At the Bank, Maitreyi has held several advisory and managerial positions and led numerous research, policy and programmatic initiatives across urban development, resilience, water security, health, social protection and social development. She was the World Bank’s first Global Lead for Social Inclusion, is a speaker at various public forums and has an extensive publications record. In her last position as Manager in the Global Practice on Urban, Resilience and Land, she oversaw and expanded a wide range of trust funded global programs and partnerships. Having started her career as a lecturer in St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Maitreyi has also been a MacArthur Fellow at the Harvard Center of Population and Development Studies and an advisor to the United Nations Development Program in Guyana. She has a PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Maryland. Before joining the World Bank, Maitreyi was in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
Publication Search Results
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Publication
Enterprises, Workers, and Skills in Urban Timor-Leste
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-03)Like many low-income countries, Timor-Leste faces challenges in providing employment for and increasing the skills of its labor force-challenges made more acute by high fertility rates, a very young population, and the capacity constraints of a new nation. However, there is limited information for policymakers to formulate appropriate policies. The paper presents findings of the first urban enterprise survey in independent Timor-Leste. It explores several aspects of the Timorese urban labor market, including the profile of formal and informal enterprises, their behavior in terms of employment and wage-setting practices, and constraints on firm growth. It also presents findings on the skills and training needs of urban employers, and constraints faced in overcoming skills shortages. It finds a highly informal urban enterprise scene, where even "formal" enterprises are largely micro-enterprises. While there has been considerable action in terms of new firm creation since independence, there is already surprisingly low job creation or destruction. This is driven by a number of constraints inside and outside the labor market. With respect to wages, the impacts of the informal minimum wage policy inherited from the interim international administration suggest the need for caution in future wage policy development. While employers identify many skills gaps, basic literacy, numeracy, and language skill needs dominate, and employers appear to value short courses and less formal modes of skills training to address their needs. The paper concludes with suggestions for addressing the key constraints identified.