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SITE Development Day brought together distinguished academics, industry experts, gender and development economists, policy makers and guests interested in the topic. Conference speakers and panelists discussed how gender discrimination negatively impacts the productivity of low and middle-income economies, but also how reforms and specific initiatives can better the situation.

The conference began with a keynote speech by Ann Bernes, Ambassador for Gender Equality and Coordinator of Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Speakers of the first panel presented a research perspective on gains from gender inclusion, origins of differences in gender norms and gender perspective on tax and benefit policy:

• Raphael Espinoza, Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund (IMF) 
• Paola Giuliano, Associate Professor of Economics, UCLA Anderson School of Management | Presentation ()
• Michal Myck, Director, Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA), | Presentation ()

Speakers of the second panel discussed initiatives that can be applied in the business sector to foster equal opportunities in a workplace and to create a gender-balanced working environment:

• Anna-Karin Dahlberg, Corporate Sustainability Manager, Lindex
• Richard Nordström, General Director, Hand in Hand
• Karin Kronhöffer, Director Strategy and Communication, Swedfund
• Anne Larilahti, VP Head of Sustainability Strategy, Telia

After lunch break speakers of the third panel discussed gender development in Eastern Europe and Eastern Partnership countries:

• Jesper Roine, Deputy Director, SITE | Presentation ()
• Charles Becker, Research Professor of Economics, Duke University | Presentation ()
• Tamta Maridashvili, Researcher, Education and Social Policy Research Center, ISET-PI | Presentation ()
• Lev Lvovskiy, Research Fellow, BEROC | Presentation ()
• Elsa HÃ¥stad, Director at the Department for Europe and Latin America, Sida

Speakers of the last panel discussed how public policy can influence gender equality and what role foreign aid can play to foster more rapid gender development:

• Inna Sovsun, Vice President, Kyiv School of Economics (KSE)
• Anna Westerholm, Sweden's Ambassador for the EU Eastern Partnership, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Carin Jämtin, Director-General, SIDA
• Torbjorn Becker, Director, SITE

Main ideas and conclusions discussed during the conference are reported in the FREE Policy Brief written by Anders OlofsgÃ¥rd, Deputy Director at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and Edvard von Sydow, Research assistant at SITE.

In order to make the next Development Day even better, please fill out this short post-conference survey and leave your suggestions and comments.

To see the conference highlights, participants, speakers, and panelists, please see conference photos on SITE Facebook page.