Ria Zapanta serves as a Research Manager for IPA’s Financial Inclusion Program. She previously worked at the World Bank in the Philippines as a Social Protection and Jobs Consultant where she delivered various research and analytical outputs in the areas of poverty and labor. Her major work includes the monitoring and evaluation of the country’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program and the design and analysis of the COVID-19 Household Surveys. Prior to the World Bank, she worked for the National Economic and Development Authority, the central planning agency of the Philippine Government. Ria holds an MA in Public Policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy where she was an Obama Foundation Scholar, an MSc in Economics from University of Nottingham and a BS in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines-Diliman.