Sarah Cook is the director of the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). A development economist and China specialist, her research has focused principally on the social and distributional impacts of economic reform in China. She received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University, and from 1996 to 2009 she was a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. From 2000-2005 she was Program Officer in the Ford Foundation's Beijing office. She is co-director of a multi-country research and network-building programme on 'Social Protection in Asia' and involved in a comparative study of informal employment in China and India. Recent research has focused on women's work and informal employment in China, social policy in Asia, and the rise of China as a development actor. Recent publications include 'Putting health back in China's development' China Perspectives (Special Feature: Creating a Harmonious Society) No. 2007/3 (in French and English) and 'Regional Perspective: Social Protection in East Asia' (with Huck-ju Kwon) Global Social Policy 7 (2) August 2007.