Nitya Rao is Professor, Gender and Development, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom and Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, which brings together disciplines to achieve the shared goal of global food and nutrition security. She has worked as a researcher and advocate in the field of women’s rights. 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. She has served as a member of 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.