Priya Nanda is an independent consultant with expertise in research, evaluation, and grantmaking on gender, women’s economic empowerment, and sexual reproductive health and rights. Her expertise and interest is in understanding approaches to rights-based practices and impact in policies, complex health systems, economic programs and value chains with a focus on gender and structural inequalities. Until April 2023, as a Senior Program Officer with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) at the India Country office in the Measurement Learning and Evaluation team, she led the research and evaluation grantmaking portfolio to support health systems strengthening, digital health programs and family planning. Prior to joining BMGF, she was the Director of the Social and Economic Development group for the International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India from 2006 to 2016. At ICRW she led research, policy and programmatic work on gender equality and poverty reduction, with a focus on the intersection of economic and health issues. She has led large research and evaluation studies on measurement and evaluation of women’s economic empowerment and access to health services, including reproductive and sexual health and adolescent empowerment programs. She was also the Co-Director of the ODI-led research consortium on adolescent health longitudinal studies called Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence from 2014 to 2016. At the Center for Health and Gender Equity, from 1998 to 2006, she worked on policy and donor accountability to a rights-based agenda through monitoring and tracking programs. She has a Ph. D in health economics from the Johns Hopkins University, an MIA from Columbia University, and an MA and BA in economics from the University of Delhi. She is also an adjunct faculty at the University of North Carolina’s Department of Maternal and Child Health, a Regional Alumnae Lead for WomenLift Health, and on the Advisory Council of IDEAS42.
