Rita Abi Akar is an international Public Health Nutritionist with 8+ years of experience in Health and Nutrition programming. She has worked in humanitarian and development settings with donors, INGOs, UN agencies, private sector and Civil Society organisations, covering more than 10 countries in West, Central and East Africa as well as the Middle East region.

She graduated with a Master’s degree in Clinical and Public Health Nutrition from the Lebanese University. During her time with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Beirut, she co-authored the study “Risk factors for diabetes in Palestinians residing in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study” that was published in the abstracts section of The Lancet Volume 393 in March 2019.

Through her work experience, Rita has led on programme and strategy design, proposal development, research, analysis and report writing and donor reporting as well as capacity building support including facilitation of technical trainings and workshops. She has worked in the areas of CMAM, IYCF, Food Security and Livelihoods, Gender, Social and Behaviour Change, Psychosocial Support, Climate, Anti-Racism and Localisation.

In addition to her position as an associate at NutritionWorks, Rita sits on the anti-racism and localisation working group of the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance and is an avid supporter of anti-racism in the aid sector and beyond.