Child poverty conference
Brussels, 26 November 2009
List of speakers and discussants
Georg Fischer, European Commission ()
European Commission,Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Acting Director of Directorate E – Social Protection and Integration and Head of unit E/4 – Social Protection, Social Services
Isabelle Engsted-Maquet, European Commission ()
European Commission, Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Isabelle Maquet is Policy analyst Official in Unit E/2 – Inclusion, Social Policy Aspects of Migration, Streamlining of Social Policy. She is secretary to the indicators sub-group of the Social Protection Committee.
Fran Bennett–University of Oxford, Dept. of Social Policy and Social Work ()
Fran Bennett works in the department of Social Policy and Social Work as a senior research fellow. She has a particular interest in social security policy, gender issues, and poverty, income distribution and participation, issues on which she has written extensively for the UK government, NGOs and others. With Prof Jonathan Bradshaw, she is the UK independent expert on social inclusion for the European Commission. She is a research associate of the IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies).
Jonathan Bradshaw–Social Policy Research Unit, University of York ()
Jonathan Bradshaw is Professor of Social Policy, Associate Director of the Social policy Research Unit and Director Family Budget Unit. His key areas of interest include child well being, family change, poverty and social inclusion, social security policy, on which he has published extensively. With Prof Fran Bennet, he is the UK independent expert on social inclusion for the European Commission.
Philippe Courard–Belgian Secretary of State for social integration and fight against poverty, Federal Ministry of Social affairs and public health ()
Mayor “en titre” of the Municipality of Hotton (absent from this position because of his ministerial duties), Philippe Courard was Minister of Emloyment and Training of the Walloon Region from 2003 to 2004 and Minister of Interior and Civil service of the Walloon Region and from 2004 to 2009. His areas of interest include social inclusion, the fight against poverty, soacila affairs, pubic heath, employment and training, housing.
Aurelio Fernandez Lopez –Spanish Ministry of Social Security, Advisor to the Secretary of State for Social Security ()
Aurelio Fernandez Lopez has been Chair of the EU Social Protection Committee since January 2009. He is currently Coordinator of development and technical cooperation activities in social security at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, where he has also been Advisor to the Secretary of State for Social Security since 2004. He is also a member of the European Task Force on Ageing, established in the follow-up of the European strategy on ageing.
Michael Förster–OECD ()
Michael Förster is Principal Administrator (senior economist) in the Social Policy Division of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.In the past, he worked with international research institutes, including the Luxembourg Income Study (1994-1996) and the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna (2000-2004). His research interest and expertise focus on international comparative social policy analysis, in particular in the areas of income distribution, poverty, impacts of tax/benefit policies, and selected areas of social policy reform.
Hugh Frazer–NationalUniversity of Ireland ()
Hugh Frazer is also an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth where he is currently leading a research project looking at policies to tackle child poverty in Ireland in a European context. He is also working as an independent expert advising national, European and International organisations (e.g. European Commission, UNICEF) and NGOs (e.g. Eurochild and EAPN) on the development of social inclusion policies and strategies with a particular focus on issues of child poverty. With Eric Marlier, he manages the EU Network of independent experts on social inclusion.
Andras Gabos– Tarki ()
András Gábos is Senior Researcher at TÁRKI Social Research Institute. His main research interests are fertility effects of intergenerational transfers, cost of children, work incentive effects of family policies, poverty (especially child poverty) and income inequality. He is involved in several European research projects such as WORKCARE (FP6, 2006-), the Social Situation Observatory - Income Distribution and Living Conditions (DG EMPL, 2005-) and I-CUE (FP6, 2005-).
Jana Hainsworth– EUROCHILD ()
Jana Hainsworth is Secretary General of Eurochild since January 2006. She is responsible for the management of the network involving over 80 children's organisations from 32 European countries. She had previous work experience in communications, research and consultancy and the voluntary sector in Brussels and the UK. She holds a Masters degree in Environment, Development and Policy from SussexUniversity and Honours degree in Natural Sciences from DurhamUniversity.
John Halloran –ESN European Social Network ()
John Halloranis the Director of the European Social Network (ESN), which represents chief executives and directors of public social care and health services in regional and local government, as well as other research and development, inspection and provider organisations in 28 countries. ESN is directly supported by the European Commission and has Contributory Status with the Council of Europe. He was previously a senior manager of public welfare services in the UKand has written extensively on social service issues.
Petra Hoelscher– UNICEF ()
Petra Hoelscher works as a Project Officer, Social and Economic Policy, in the UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in Geneva. Prior to joining UNICEF in 2006 she was a Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Stirling in Scotland. Her main areas of interest are child poverty and social exclusion and child well-being.
Markus Jäntti–Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), StockholmUniversity ()
Markus Jänttiis Professor of Economics at SOFI. His research focuses on income and wealth inequality and poverty and socio-economic mobility, especially in a cross-national perspective. He is also the Research Director at the Luxembourg Income Study, where his tasks include advising LIS staff on data harmonisation and research methods, having overall responsibility for data quality and participating in overall project management.
Michel Legros–Ecole des hautes études en santé publique ()
Michel LEGROS is the Director of the Human and Social Sciences and Health Behaviour Department at the National School of Public Health (France). Member of the National Observatory on Poverty and Social Exclusion, he is a member of the EU Network of independent experts on social inclusion.
Eric Marlier– CEPS/INSTEAD ()
Eric Marlier’s research focuses on social monitoring, comparative socio-economic analysis and implementation of international surveys. For more than 20 years, he has run projects in these fields for various international organisations, several national governments and the private sector. With AB Atkinson, B. Cantillon and B. Nolan, he wrote two reference books: “Social Indicators: The EU and Social Inclusion” (OUP, 2002) and “The EU and social inclusion: Facing the challenges” (Policy Press, 2007). He chaired the EU Task-Force on child poverty and well-being. With Hugh Frazer, he manages the EU Network of independent experts on social inclusion.
Dominic Richardson– OECD ()
Dominic Richardson is Policy Analyst at the Social Policy Division of OECD. Between 2002 and 2007 he was at the University of York. His research focuses on child well-being and the development of an index of child well-being. He was involved in many recent research projects on this issue and in the organisation of the UNICEF IRC / OECD / European CommissionChild Well-being Expert Consultation in May 2009.
Keetie Roelen –University of Maastricht ()
Keetie Roelen works as a Researcher and Project Consultant for the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. She is pursuing her PhD on the subject of child poverty measurement and policy. Her research interests include poverty, poverty reduction policies and social assistance and protection policies. She has worked as a consultant on a number of training and research projects for international organizations, including the World Bank, UNICEF and UNDP.
David Stanton()
David Stanton is an economic social policy analyst with experience of policy evaluation and development in labour market, pensions and social policies. He was a member of OECD policy review teams in Poland, Czech Republic Hungary and Russia, Chair of OECD’s Social Policy Working Group, and since 2001 he has been Chair of the Indicators Sub Group of the EU Social protection Committee.
István Tóth, Tarki ()
István György Tóth is Director of TÁRKI Social Research Institute and Privatdozent at BudapestCorvinusUniversity. His research focuses on social policy and income distribution. He has been consultant to various international organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank, member of the Luxemburg Income Study Advisory Board. Authored, edited and co-edited a number of books and articles on income distribution, on the economics of welfare state and on social reporting (on Hungary and on Europe as well). He is a member of the core team of the Social Situation Observatory . Income distribution and living conditions. With Terry Ward, he co-directed the study on Child poverty.
Margaret Wachenfeld– Unicef
Margaret Wachenfeld is the Senior Policy Adviser in the UNICEF Brussels office which is in charge of UNICEF’s relations with the EU institutions to ensure that children are reflected in EU policy and development cooperation. Prior to joining UNICEF, Margaret worked as principal human rights adviser for the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) and was a senior associate with the law firm of White & Case in Brussels where she had an EU law practice. She was also counsel at the Danish Institute for Human Rights for several years and lectured on human rights at the University of Copenhagen, where she had received her PhD in human rights law.
Terry Ward– Applica ()
Terry Ward, Director of Research at Applica, is an economist with long and wide experience of analysing policy issues and monitoring labour market and social developments across the EU. He has been a consultant and advisor to DG Employment since the mid-1980s. Since 2005, he has been directing the work of DG Employmenton the Social Situation Observatory – Income distribution and living conditions. With István Tóth, he co-directed the study on Child poverty.
Irena Woycicka– The Gdansk Institute for Market Economics ()
Irena Woycickais Head of the Social Studies Research. She is an economist and social politician specialising in the efficiency of social security, gender aspects of social policy and poverty and social exclusion. In 1991-1993,she was undersecretary of labour and social policy and in 1998-2001, advisor to the prime minister and minister of labour. She is also a member of the EU Network of independent experts on Social Inclusion.
Child poverty conference – Brussels, 26 November 2009List of speakers and discussants