Dr. Tara Sylvia Bedi is a development economist with a focus on gender, social norms, behaviour change, social protection and mental well-being. She focuses on the evaluation of large-scale field projects on gender empowerment and poverty reduction. She is conducting research in Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mauritania, Kenya, Zambia and Ireland.

Dr. Tara Bedi has a strong background in designing and implementing research projects focused on gender impacts in anti-poverty and social protection programs. In Malawi, she led a randomized control trial (RCT) to study the effects of the Graduation Program, varying the gender of the recipient of an antipoverty programme and including gender empowerment training, to evaluate its impact on intrahousehold bargaining power, well-being, and poverty. In Mauritania, she designed and executed an RCT to examine the influence of gender social norms interventions on female empowerment, spousal cohesion, and welfare outcomes. In Zambia, she worked on a RCT to evaluate the impact of an empowerment program on adolescent girls. This study assessed the girls' knowledge of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), attitudes and norms around gender roles, corporal punishment, bullying, sexual violence, and their responses to SRGBV. Her work is affiliated with prestigious institutions, including Trinity College Dublin, the Africa Gender Innovation Lab at the World Bank, and the University of Bath.

Dr. Bedi is currently an Assistant Professor in Development Practice in the department of geography at Trinity College Dublin, where she teaches on theories of gender and development. Prior to this, she was a Marie Curie (CAROLINE) Irish Research Council Research Fellow. Prior to her PhD, she worked with Trócaire, an Irish NGO, leading on policy research, including Leading Edge 2020 and she worked in the Poverty Reduction Group at the World Bank, where she did research and published on impact evaluations, poverty maps and poverty monitoring systems. She grew up in rural India around her parent’s work on rights and development.

Dr. Tara Bedi holds a PhD degree in development economics from University of Dublin, Trinity College, a master’s degree in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School.