PROFILE

PhD, University of Paris II (Prize awarded by the Institute of Comparative Law, 1987, Prize for best thesis, Paris II, 1988)

Trained in Law and Political Sciences at the University of Paris, she specialised on Indian law and urban management. Her PhD on this subject received two prizes from the University of Paris. She started her career in France as a legal advisor to the French public administration (New Town of Saint Quentin en Yvelines) and continued as a consultant and researcher (Economie et Humanisme, ORSTOM – IRD). She arrived in Geneva in 1988 to teach at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) and carry out research and consultations for various assignments (Swiss Development Corporation, French Ministries, International Organisations). From 1996 to 2001, she was the Deputy Director of the IUED, in charge of Research. From 2001 to 2004, she headed project team of 50 researchers on "Governance, Human Development and Environment", under the NCCR North South, funded by the Swiss National Fund for Research and the Swiss Development Corporation. Her teaching (in Geneva, India and Latin America) and her research assignments focus on governance, urban management, Indian policies and on the strategies of international cooperation agencies. She is presently in charge of the Indo-Franco-Swiss team of the research project “CITADAIN” on the role of legal reforms in urban development, funded by the French National Agency for Research (2006 – 2009).