Cynthia McDougall

Dr Cynthia McDougall is a Senior Research Fellow at SEI. She serves as the Science Director at SEI Asia and leads SEI Asia’s Gender, Environment and Justice Research Cluster. Cynthia is also an Affiliated Researcher with Chulalongkorn University’s Social Research Institute (CUSRI), contributing to science and policy engagement.

As SEI Asia’s Science Director, Cynthia guides the Centre’s strategic research direction in alignment with SEI’s global strategy, spearheads research quality and integrity commitments, and chairs SEI Asia’s Strategic Research Team (SRT). She is a frequent expert speaker on sustainability, gender, and social equity, representing the Centre in high-level dialogues and events of UN agencies and other partners.

As head of SEI Asia’s Gender, Environment and Justice Research Cluster, Cynthia leads a dynamic team dedicated to catalysing and informing evidence-based policy and practice for a just, climate-resilient, and sustainable future. Their work generates actionable, intersectional recommendations for governments, civil society, and UN agencies, including on gender, social equity and justice in relation to climate, migration and mobility, rights-based pathways and more. Further, Cynthia and team work across SEI Asia and with multiple partners to integrate Gender Equity, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) into research and planning spanning climate finance, adaptation and disaster risk reduction, urban planning, air pollution, Nature-based Solutions, food systems, natural resource management and conservation, and Just Green and Blue Transitions. In addition, Cynthia and team provide expert guidance to donors and partners on GEDSI strategies, gender-transformative (GT) approaches, and design principles for effective, equity-promoting research.

With over two decades of experience as an interdisciplinary social scientist, Cynthia brings deep expertise in gender, social equity, and inclusion within natural resource management and governance and food systems. Cynthia’s interests include strengthening sustainability science and its contributions by drawing on inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, and design- and systems thinking. Since 2015, she has been at the forefront of advancing gender transformative approaches in food systems and natural resource governance, a social innovation recognised in the CGIAR’s “Top 50 Innovations”. Her contributions include leading the CGIAR GENDER Platform Working Group on Gender-Transformative (GT) Approaches, contributing GT approaches to the UN Food Systems Summit, and actionable GT methods and strategies.

Before joining SEI in 2022, Cynthia was the Gender Research Leader at WorldFish and the FISH Programme in the CGIAR, where she led gender, equity, and inclusion research and integration in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Her earlier work with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) contributed to the development of adaptive collaborative management for community forestry, promoting sustainable, inclusive and equitable forest and livelihood outcomes. As a Research Award Recipient, she worked with Canada’s International Development Research Centre on its global Programme on Ecohealth, addressing environmental health challenges with people-centred strategies.

Cynthia holds a PhD in Knowledge, Technology and Innovation from Wageningen University (The Netherlands), an MPhil in Geography from Cambridge University (UK), and a BA Honours in Political Science and Development Studies from Trent University (Canada).