Susana Araujo is a Research Officer working in the Governance cluster on projects related to gender and politics. She is also a postgraduate researcher studying the dynamics of social movements and countermovements around gender equality in Peru. Previously, she has worked as a technical advisor for UN Women and as a projects officer for the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation in Peru.

Susana is a governance and gender specialist with over sixteen years of experience in Latin America within the international development sector, working with multi and bilateral agencies as well as civil society organisations.

At IDS, Susana is a portfolio research officer in the Governance cluster. Her work is currently focused on the impact of Covid-19 on different dimensions of governance and gender equality. She also supports the MA Gender and Development as Teaching Assistant and supervisor. Previously, she has worked in the ‘Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights (POWER)’ project, implemented by ActionAid in Rwanda, Ghana and Bangladesh. She has also done various literature reviews, particularly on gender and politics, women’s economic empowerment and women’s rights mobilisation.

Susana is also a technical advisor of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women – UN Women. From 2010 – 2018, she acted as a projects officer of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in Peru, monitoring the bilateral and NGOs programmes funded by AECID on gender equality and governance. She was also responsible for the Secretariat of the Donors Agencies Group on Gender Equality in Peru, overseeing the production of policy papers and coordinating joint positions of the official development cooperation in the country.

She has particular interest in the politics of gender backlash and its impact on women’s rights mobilisations, as well as the gendered nature of policy making processes. Currently, she is doing her PhD at IDS on the contentious politics of social movements and countermovements around gender equality in Peru.

Susana’s PhD thesis, titled ‘The Dynamics of Social Movements and Countermovements around Gender Equality in Peru’ is supervised by Sohela Nazneen and Deepta Chopra.