Raza Raja

Raza Habib Raja is from Pakistan. His first Master’s degree was in Economics and Finance from Lahore School of Economics in 1999. His second Master’s degree is in Public Administration from Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA) in 2013 where his concentration was Government, Politics and Policy. In between these two degrees, he has worked in development as well as public sector. He started his career with one of the leading NGOs in Pakistan, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP). During his stay at AKRSP, he had the opportunity to work at the grass root level in Northern Area of Pakistan which is an impoverished and mountainous area bordering China. After working for AKRSP for one year, he joined State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) which is the central bank and is responsible for financial sector supervision and management of monetary policy. In SBP, he worked in variety of areas such as Banking Policy, Governor’s office, Infrastructure finance, Onsite inspection of banks, Microfinance, and Development finance. He is also a freelance journalist and has contributed regularly for Huffington Post (USA). His research interests include political economy of development finance, public policy, and politics in Middle East and South Asia.