Dr. Marzia Fontana is a feminist economist with over 25 years of research and teaching experience.

Her research mainly focuses on gender inequalities and international trade, labour markets, macroeconomic policies, and care provision. Recently, she has also developed an interest in disability rights and inclusion. She provides research and advisory support on these topics to international organizations and bilateral agencies, including the ILO, UN Women, UNCTAD, UNIDO, FAO, UNDP, the European Parliament, Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DFAT, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

She enjoys teaching very much and has had the privilege of working with many postgraduate students at IDS, as well as the Gender Institute of LSE and SOAS, University of London, over the years. She was previously a Research Fellow and MA Gender and Development Convenor at IDS. Her fieldwork experience is mostly in Asia (Vietnam, Laos PDR, Cambodia, India) and the Fiji Islands.

Selected publications

Fontana, M. and Esquivel, V. (2024) ‘GENSEC: A gender-responsive sectoral policy tool’ ILO: Geneva   https://www.ilo.org/publications/gensec-gender-responsive sectoral policy-tool

Fontana, M. (2024) ‘Assessing the employment situation in five countries and promoting a gender responsive structural transformation’ Synthesis Report. UN Women-ILO Joint Programme: Geneva https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/%40ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_911134.pdf

Fontana, M. and Mitra, S. (2023) ‘Inclusive trade and persons with disabilities’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland Working Paper Helsinki: Finland https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/165151/UM_2023_12.pdf

Elson, D. and Fontana, M. (2019).  ‘Conceptualising Gender Equitable Inclusive Growth’ in Elson, D. and A. Seth (Eds.). 2019. Gender Equality and Inclusive Growth: Economic Policies to Achieve Sustainable Development. New York: UN Women.

Narayanan, S., Lentz, E., Fontana, M., De, A. and B. Kulkarni (2019) ‘Developing the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index in Two States of India’ Food Policy 89:1-18

Fontana, M. and D. Elson (2014) ‘The impact of public policies on water provision and early childhood  education and care (ECEC): do they reduce and redistribute unpaid work?’ Gender and Development, 22.3: 459-474