Professor of Gender & Development, School of Global Development

University of East Anglia, United Kingdom

Nitya Rao is Professor, Gender and Development at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom and Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development. She has worked as a researcher and advocate in the field of women’s rights, gendered wellbeing, and justice, with a focus on food, nutrition, health and livelihood security. She has published extensively on the
gendered changes in agrarian relations, migration and livelihoods, especially in contexts of climatic variability and economic precarity. She has consistently engaged with policy and practice, at both the global and local levels. Apart from supporting networks of women farmers in India, she served on the Global Advisory Committee of the United Nations Girls Education Initiative
for over a decade and on the Steering Group of the High-Level Panel of Experts to the Committee on World Food Security for two terms. She is currently Commissioner, EAT-Lancet 2.0 on healthy and sustainable diets, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, member of the UKRI International Strategic Advisory Group, and External Adviser, People-Centered Food Systems Project at Columbia University.