Political Science & Sociology

Nata Duvvury is development expert with research interests in gender,  labour markets and welfare state,  gendered impacts of globalization, economic costs of gender based violence, civil society and global governance, and social mobilization. Dr. Duvvury has extensive international research and program experience in gender and development, with particular emphasis on gender inequality, domestic violence, rights-based approached to development, and civil society participation and accountability. She has authored more than 50 research reports, peer-review publications and papers in edited books. Dr. Duvvury contributed a chapter to the recent Secretary General's report on Violence Against Women, which was introduced in the General Assembly of the United Nations on October 9, 2006.  Her current research is focused on two main issues.

The issue of estimating costs of violence within developing countries is an key area of her research interest. She was the lead author of the Costs of Intimate Partner Violence at the Household and Community Levels: An Operational Framework for Developing Countries, which was the first attempt to layout a operational framework relevant to developing countries. She also led the first multi-country study on Estimating Costs of Intimate Partner Violence at Household and Community Levels, funded by UNFPA.    She was the lead author for a recent World Bank Discussion Paper on Intimate Partner Violence: Economic Costs and Consequences. As lead author she led the development of a conceptual framework links between IPV and economic growth, provided a roadmap of costing methodologies with varying level of data availability, and estimated empirically sectoral output loss in Vietnam. She was the international consultant for the recent research in Vietnam funded by UN Women estimating the costs of domestic violence against women. Dr. Duvvury is currently leading a four-year multi-country study on social and economic costs of violence against women and girls with funding from DFID.  

Another area of her research is focused on gender, labour markets and welfare state. Under this broad theme, she has worked on issues of older women workers’ access to pensions, gendered impacts of recession and austerity and more recently on precarious employment and older workers. She received funding from CARDI to lead a cross-border research on pensions and older women and published a number of reports and articles. She is actively involved several networks including an Irish Research Council funded network on Gender and Employment across the Lifecourse and Board member of the Research Stream on Gender, Labour and Welfare State of the European Sociological Association. She worked closely with Aine Ni Leime to submit a successful proposal for a COST Action on Gender and Health Impacts of Extended Working Life and is Work Package Leader on Policy Toolkits.

She has received grants from international and donors including World Bank, UNFPA, UN Women, CARDI, and Department of Foreign Affairs. While at International Center for Research on Women in Washington DC she received grants from GATES Foundation, Levi Strauss Foundation, Ford Foundation, UNFPA, and USAID.