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NORC at the University Chicago

Santadarshan Sadhu

Pronouns: He/Him

Principal Research Scientist
International Programs
Shanto is an expert in complex evaluation of financial inclusion and agricultural value chain interventions and a thought leader in child labor and forced labor measurement.

Shanto serves as an impact evaluation specialist on multiple projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America in a variety of developmental policy interventions. He is an expert in leading randomized control trial and quasi-experimental design-based research for making causal inference. He currently leads NORC’s financial inclusion related evaluations in developing countries and serves as the subject matter expert in child labor and forced labor measurement. He has been serving as the Principal Investigator in two forced labor studies funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), providing technical expertise in documenting the prevalence of forced labor in the garment sector in Argentina and Madagascar. Shanto has been regularly invited to present in high-level conferences and workshops on child labor and forced labor and appeared in media representing the International Programs department.

Before joining NORC, Shanto worked in two premier research institutions in India. From 2010 to 2013, he was the Head of Policy and In-House Research team at the Centre for Micro Finance at IFMR Lead, one of the leading institutions in South Asia for undertaking experimental research on poverty. Later, from 2013 to 2014, Shanto worked at IFMR Finance Foundation, a research and advocacy institution known for applied research on financial services and its influential policy advocacy role in expanding financial services to financially excluded populations in India. Shanto also served as a Short-Term Consultant at the World Bank.

Project Contributions

Assessing Child Labor in West Africa Cocoa Farming

The largest-ever examination of child labor in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana

Client:

Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor

Tanzania Data for Development Activity

Improving education, health, poverty, governance, and economic development

Client:

U.S. Agency for International Development

Publications

Research Library & Findings