Saswati Bora Head of Food Systems Innovation, World Economic Forum

Saswaphoto of woman ti is the Head of Food Systems Innovation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) where she heads WEF’s global initiative on leveraging technology and innovations to address food systems challenges as well as the agriculture work in India. As part of this work, she is responsible for content development, partnership facilitation and program development on food systems transformation.

Saswati has almost two decades of experience in agriculture, food systems and rural development, including 3 years working as a journalist in India. Before WEF, Saswati worked in the agriculture and rural development department of the World Bank where she helped set up two key global initiatives – the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and the Global Food Crisis Program (GFRP). Saswati has also worked previously as a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC, UNDP offices in Nepal and New York, and as a journalist with a daily newspaper in Mumbai. She is the recipient of the Global Leadership Fellowship of the World Economic Forum, a distinctive leadership development program that combines a position at the Forum with academic training, coaching and on-the-job learning. She is also the youngest winner of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties award in India for best human rights journalism in 2000 for a series of six stories on prison systems in India.

Saswati has a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, a Bachelors degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Communications from Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai.