Dr. Sanae Ito obtained her Ph.D. from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in 1999. She has over 30 years of experience in development research and administration. Her major country expertise lies in Bangladesh, where she worked at the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (1988-90) and with the Grameen Bank (1994-96). In 2001, she joined the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University in Japan. Apart from research and teaching of development studies at the graduate school, she has taken on short-term assignments outside the university for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the Japan Export and Trade Organisation (JETRO). In 2006-2009, she served as external collaborator for the International Labour Organisation’s research work on “Promoting Decent Work in Global Production Systems (GPS) in Asia and the Pacific Region”, facilitating and managing member countries’ research activities. In 2014-2017, she served as the dean of the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University. Her current research interests include: i) development cooperation policies in Asia; ii) the shifting paradigm of development; and iii) financial inclusion in South Asia.