Dr. Maria Ziegler

Caribbean Development Bank
Gender Specialist, Social Sector Division

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Dr. Maria Ziegler, a German National, holds a Doctor in Economics and Master in Public Policy and Management. She gathered professional experience as a Gender expert working for the Caribbean Development Bank as well as KfW Development Bank. In her work, she focuses on integrating gender equality considerations into infrastructural investments in sectors such as water, roads, energy, agriculture and education. Other areas of her expertise encompass strategy and capacity development. For KfW, her professional portfolio also covered other intersecting and cross-cutting themes to include human rights, inclusion of persons with disabilities and poverty and inequality. Her passion for gender equality developed when Dr. Ziegler conducted her doctoral studies. At this time she formed part of a team that developed OECD’s first version of the Social Institutions and Gender Index, an aggregate measure which ranks countries according to the level of discrimination against women. Before beginning her professional career as a Gender specialist, Dr. Ziegler worked as policy advisor of the policy planning staff of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.