Anantha Kumar Duraiappah

Visiting Professor, Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science
Director, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education
for Peace and Sustainable Development(MGIEP)/UNESCO

Profile

Prof. Anantha Duraiappah is the Executive Director of the UNited Nations University-International Human Dimension Programme (UNU-IHDP). He holds a Ph.D in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He is an experienced environmental-development economist whose work largely focuses on the equity of access and use of ecosystem services. He is the founding director and continues to be the director of the Inclusive Wealth Report. In his previous post as Chief of the Ecosystem Services and Economics Unit of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Prof. Duraiappah helped to initiate the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and has since then played a pivotal role in its recent approval. He additionally served on the scientific committee of DIVERSITAS, one of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) partners. He has authored books on environment and development, as well as articles in several internationally recognized journals. Prof. Duraiappah continues to successfully incorporate his expertise in science-policy interaction, economics, development and ecosystem services into his work at UNU-IHDP.

Research interests

Science-policy Interaction, Economics, Development and Ecosystem Services