Nitiya Rao is a Professor of Gender and Development at the University of East Anglia and experienced researcher, trainer and social activist in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Rao currently leads the gender analysis in two major research consortia, the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia which seeks to identify potential agriculture or food-based solutions to the nutritional problem in South Asia and the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions which seeks to understand the barriers and enablers for effective adaptation within dynamic and socially-differentiated semi-arid regions. Rao is a member of the Global Advisory Committee of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, and has been invited as an expert on gender, land and livelihoods to several high-level meetings. Rao was also the co-Editor of Compare, A Journal of Comparative and International Education, supported by the British Association of International and Comparative Education. She have also served as an Executive Council member, and Secretary, of the British Association of South Asian Studies for six years.