Diva Dhar

Diva Dhar leads the foundation’s investments in strengthening data systems and deepening research and evidence for women’s economic empowerment programs and policymaking. She joined the Gender Equality team in 2019 and played a key role in the design and launch of the Women’s Economic Empowerment program and strategy.

Diva joined the foundation in 2016 in the India office, where she led grantmaking to advance research and evaluation on nutrition, health systems, digital, youth, and gender equality efforts. Earlier, she worked for over a decade in public policy research and design, with a focus on gender, youth, and development. She started her career working for the Indian government’s Planning Commission and has worked in 10 countries for global nonprofit organizations including the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), Innovations for Poverty Action, and the World Bank.

Diva has a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Oxford and is a visiting fellow at the Future of Development program at the Oxford Martin School. She has graduate and undergraduate degrees in economics from Yale University and Mount Holyoke College, respectively.