Rai Sengupta serves as an Evaluation Consultant with the UNICEF Evaluation Office and supports the UNICEF Headquarters in evaluating UNICEF programming globally in the areas of health and nutrition, child protection, and climate change and WASH. She brings over 6 years of experience in researching and evaluating large-scale development programmes globally, in partnership with governments, bilateral agencies, and multilateral organisations. 

Prior to joining UNICEF, Rai worked as a Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant at Ecorys London, where she provided specialised evaluation support to a range of government and private donor funded programmes focussed on adolescent health, climate change, and gender-based violence. Previously, while working as a Consultant with the Asian Development Bank, Rai led statistical capacity building workshops across APAC countries, including India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.  Rai also worked at Invest India – India’s premier investment promotion agency – and managed a strategic research desk for the Ministry of Women and Child Development in India. 

Across her career, Rai has delivered various complex evaluation and research assignments - including the evaluation of the Government of India's rural development portfolio during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the formative evaluation of a national cash transfer programme in partnership with UNICEF Myanmar (which received a 'Highly Satisfactory' rating from UNICEF), and the baseline evaluations of FCDO’s flagship transboundary water management and climate finance programmes in Africa. 

Rai holds an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention (Distinction) from the University of Oxford, where she pursued her studies as a fully funded Weidenfeld Hoffmann Scholar. She also holds a Bachelor's degree (First Division) in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi.