Aruna Rao

Aruna Rao "is a gender and institutional change expert with over 25 years?experience of addressing gender issues in a variety of development organisations, primarily in Asia. She is currently the Director of Gender at Work, a new knowledge and capacity-building network focused on the links between gender equality, organisations and institutional change.

"She has served as President of the Association for Women' Rights in Development (AWID) and she is currently a Commissioner of the Commission on Globalization convened by State of the World Forum. She has served as Vice Chair on the CIVICUS for the past three years. From 1994 to 1990, Rao coordinated a Population Council programme of research in five Asian countries on gender issues in rural development programme planning and implementation and worked with national training institutions to integrate gender perspectives into their capacity building programmes.

"She organised leading world conferences on gender training and development planning. Beginning in 1994, she led a team that pioneered a new approach to gender and organizational change in BRAC in Bangladesh. She has consulted widely with UN organisations, academic institutions, and development NGOs both international and national on gender and development and organizational change issues." 

Currently a director of CIVICUS.
 * Advisory Board, Women’s Learning Partnership