Asia Foundation Appoints Nandita Baruah Country Representative for India

The Asia Foundation announces the appointment of Nandita Baruah as country representative in India. She served most recently as the Foundation’s deputy country representative and acting country representative in Nepal. With over 25 years of experience working in the development sector in Asia, including 10 years throughout rural and urban India, Baruah’s extensive knowledge of the country’s socio-cultural and political realities will sustain and expand the Foundation’s work in India.

In India, Baruah oversees a range of programs and regional initiatives supporting South-South cooperation on regional trade, water governance, renewable energy, promote gender equity and social inclusion by addressing social and economic empowerment, as well as facilitating India’s engagement in regional and global affairs.

Nandita Baruah has served in senior technical and management positions with INGOs and bilateral and multilateral agencies where she managed country specific and multi-country regional programs, including in India. Significant past positions include serving as the UNODC South Asia coordinator for the UN Global Initiative To Fight Trafficking (UN.GIFT); senior regional advisor on Anti-Trafficking and Equity Programs at USAID in New Delhi; regional program coordinator for the gender-based violence and anti-trafficking programs of UNIFEM/UNWomen; and gender advisor for Canadian International Development Agency in India.

In 2008, she joined The Asia Foundation as chief of party for a USAID-funded counter-trafficking in persons (CTIP) project in Cambodia, and after successful completion of the program in Cambodia she moved to the Foundation’s Nepal office in 2011 as chief of party for the CTIP program in Nepal.

Among her many honors, in 2010, Baruah was awarded the Prime Minister’s Gold Medal by the Royal Government of Cambodia for providing technical expertise in support of the creation of victim protection policies and practices. In 2015, she received an Asia Foundation Presidential Award in recognition of her leadership during the aftermath of the Nepal earthquakes.

Nandita Baruah holds master’s degrees in Political Economy and Modern Indian Historical Studies, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our programs address critical issues affecting Asia in the 21st century—governance and law, economic development, women’s empowerment, environment, and regional cooperation.

Read more about the Foundation’s work in India.

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