Gita Sen is a feminist political economist and a founder member of the Global South Feminist Network, DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era). DAWN played a key role in advocating for the ICPD and Beijing agendas and advancing them globally, regionally and nationally. With a PhD in Economics from Stanford University, she has been an Adjunct professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. She has worked with UNFPA, UN Women and WHO in promoting the ICPD paradigm shift towards SRHR and gender equality. She has served on the Indian delegation to UN ESCAP regional meetings and to UN CPD.
Known for her analytical and advocacy skills, she has published extensively and received the UNFPA award in honour of Dr Fred T Sai at the ICPD+25 Nairobi summit in 2019. She has also received the Volvo Environment Prize for her work on women, population and development, and Honorary Doctorates from the University of East Anglia, the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm), the Open University (UK), the University of Sussex, and the University of Edinburgh
