Rita Thapa is founder and director of Nagarik Aawaz (2001), an initiative for conflict transformation and peace building in Nepal, where she previously founded and led Tewa, the innovative Nepal Women’s Fund. She has 30 years’ experience as a feminist educator and community activist, including service on the international committee of the Regional Center for Strategic Studies (based in Colombo, Sri Lanka) and with the South Asia Center for Policy Studies (SACEPS). Rita has in the past worked for GTZ, the Canadian Cooperation Office (Nepal), as the programme manager for Oxfam UK and as a consultant to Unifem/UNDP Nepal.
Rita earned her Bachelor of Education in her home town of Kathmandu, before pursuing a postgraduate diploma at the University of Sussex in the UK. In July 2009 she finished an applied conflict transformation MA degree from Cambodia. She is a former chair of the Global Fund for Women and vice-chair of the Urgent Action Fund, a Dame Nita Barrow Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto (2002), a current Ashoka Fellow and one of the 1,000 peace women around the globe.