Susan Kaaria is a Senior Gender Officer in the Social Policies and Rural Institutions Division (ESP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). She leads the team working on gender under the Strategic Programme on Reducing Rural Poverty, which is developing programmes and initiatives for promoting gender equality and rural women’s economic empowerment. Prior to joining FAO, Dr. Kaaria was a Program Officer for the Ford Foundation Office for Eastern Africa programming in the area of Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Poor Households in East Africa. Dr. Kaaria has also worked as a Senior Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). At CIAT, her research focused on developing participatory approaches for catalyzing rural innovation processes and increasing access and benefits from market opportunities, by poor and marginalized groups, especially poor rural women. She has also published widely on these subjects and is co-editor of Innovation Africa: Enriching Farmers’ Livelihoods.