Contributions and Distinctions
In 2013, she contributed to the UN Women’s annual report, which the agency uses to guide development policy and support non-governmental organizations’ economic and outreach programs. Beginning in 2016, she helped launch a major gender and sanitation initiative at UN Women and served as the lead author of a UN Women paper that has informed the development practices of several aid organizations and countries, including the governments of Germany and Singapore.
Biographical Sketch
Isha Ray completed her BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University in 1983, her MA at the Food Research Institute in 1985 and her PhD in Applied Economics in 1997 both from Stanford University. While interviewing local farmers for her dissertation research on water irrigation in Maharashtra, India, Isha Ray noticed a theme in participants’ responses. Although community members readily discussed their agricultural irrigation concerns, drinking water emerged as a key issue for farmers and their families. From that initial observation, the importance of water resources became a focal point of Ray’s research as a social scientist and development advocate. Her research has taken her across the globe in an effort to provide agency, dignity, and community-driven development solutions to populations facing political and technological barriers to water and sanitation facilities. In 2013, she contributed to the UN Women’s annual report, which the agency uses to guide development policy and support non-governmental organizations’ economic and outreach programs. Beginning in 2016, she helped launch a major gender and sanitation initiative at UN Women and served as the lead author of a UN Women paper that has informed the development practices of several aid organizations and countries, including the governments of Germany and Singapore. She is an advocate of community-driven development—the practice of incorporating local knowledge and resources into infrastructure projects—and a proponent of clean and safe toilets in schools and workplaces to promote gender equality.