Valerie Nelson is a social development specialist at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich. She conducts research and consultancies on the social dimensions of agricultural and rural development. She leads the Equitable Trade and Responsible Business Programme at the NRI and has conducted a series of studies on the impacts of fair and ethical trading schemes, corporate codes of practice, sustainability standards and currently responsible business initiatives. She is currently evaluating several UK Government programmes on trade and global value chains, responsible business and investments in forests and sustainable land use as well as supporting on-going research on the impact of the Better Cotton Initiative in India and Rainforest Alliance in Ghana. She has undertaken academic work on the politics of private standards and published on non-state market mechanisms and poverty impact. She sat on the UK Development Studies Association Council for six years.

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