Nethra Palaniswamy is the former Coordinator of the Social Observatory (SO). She works on translating the principles that underlie the SO’s model of building adaptive capacity into field level implementation. She coordinates the SO’s work program and leads the implementation of all monitoring, tracking, and evaluation activities in the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction (Pudhu Vaazhvu) Project and the Odisha Rural Livelihoods (TRIPTI) Project. Prior to joining the SO, she worked on impact evaluations of Community Driven Development Programs at the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation Initiative, and was a Senior Research Analyst working on the local governance research program at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC. Nethra holds an M.S. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.