Varalakshmi Vemuru

Vara Vemuru is a Lead Social Development Specialist in the World Bank with the Social Development Global Practice. She is currently leading the World Bank’s development response to address impacts of forced displacement in the Horn of Africa region through operations and analytics. She is also leading operations on women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria and India. Vara has worked extensively in the South Asia and Africa regions on broad ranging social development issues including inclusion, women’s empowerment, disability inclusion including addressing mental health issues, conflict sensitive development and social accountability. Her recent work has focused on Fragile and conflict affected contexts in Africa. Vara has been with the World Bank since 2000.