Dr. Uma Lele, now Independent Scholar, is a recognized international leader, thinker, and policy analyst with extensive research and operational experience; her areas of work include food, agriculture, health, environment, global public goods, science and technology, external assistance and partnerships.  With a Ph.D. from Cornell University, Ms. Lele began her career as Economist at the World Bank; and later served as a Research and Operational Manager and Policy Advisor in the World Bank’s Development Economics Department, the Africa and East Asia and the Pacific Regions. Advisor in the Operational Policy Staff and as Senior Advisor in the Operations Evaluation Department now called the Independent Evaluation Group (1971 – 2005). Her early work focused on African rural development followed by macroeconomic work on Indonesia (as Senior Economist), followed by work on various facets of aid and development effectiveness.

While on leave from the World Bank during 1991 – 1995, she was a Graduate Research Professor and Director of International Studies at the University of Florida. She co-chaired (with Dr. Ronnie Coffman of Cornell University) an international taskforce on Global Research on the Environmental and Agricultural Nexus (GREAN) to promote partnerships among the CGIAR centers and science and technology institutions in advanced and developing countries to achieve sustainable development. While at the University of Florida she established and directed the Global Development Initiative of the Carter Center and the Carnegie Corporation, served on the CGIAR’s founding board of the Center for International Policy Research, and later on the CGIAR’s Technical Advisory Committee now known as the Science and Partnership Council.

On return to the Bank in 1995, she led the Bank’s work on Brazil and China on issues of Agricultural Science and Technology and conducted quality assessment reviews. As Senior Advisor for the World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department (now IEG), during 1998 – 2005, she led complex evaluations of the World Bank’s Forest Strategy, Global Partnership Programs, and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) addressing issues of deforestation, food and agriculture and the Bank’s approach to globalization in health, environment, finance and trade.  She also co-chaired an International Taskforce of the China Council on Environment and Development (CCICED) for which she recently attended its 20th anniversary celebrations.