Neha Lal is Senior Manager, Urban Development in the Sustainable Cities and Transport team at WRI India. Here she works on research and implementation projects related to systems thinking for urban challenges, land governance and policy, strategic regional planning, and climate resilience. Neha currently manages the Thriving Eco city-regions Initiative and supports efforts towards on building regenerative development trajectories across multiple city regions in India. Previously, she has contributed to initiatives on strategic projects in Delhi NCR, land use integration policies and planning for transitioning urban villages.

Neha joins WRI with a background in action-oriented research, capacity building and critical urban studies. Neha has previously held research positions with Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, an advocacy organization and NGO working on participatory governance and habitat upgradation; Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), a research and educational institution working on sustainable urban transformation; and Observer Research Foundation, a leading policy research think tank. She has also served as an editorial team member of anthropological journal Architecture_MPS, published by UCL Press. Neha’s work has been published in Springer, Development Informatic Working paper series and MHT-SEWA research publications.

Neha holds a bachelor’s in journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. She has completed her master’s and M. Phil in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics at University of Delhi with a focus on urban sociology, land rights and governance. She was previously an exchange fellow at National University of Singapore (2013), Urban fellow at IIHS in Bangalore (2017), and Turin School for Regulation in Italy (2021).

Having lived and worked in multiple Indian cities, Neha has now found her way back to Delhi where she was born and raised. She enjoys reading, gardening, travelling, and looking at maps.