Janet Hunt is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University where she teaches and conducts research about Indigenous development in Australia and is also working on a major project on international gender-sensitive poverty measurement. She is the former Executive Director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (now the Australian Council for International Development), the peak body for international aid and development NGOs. She  is a former Executive Director of the International Women’s Development Agency. She has worked extensively in the Asia-Pacific region and since 1999 she has spent considerable time working with and researching local NGOs in East Timor. She has been a board member of or consultant to many civil society organisations over the years, and has been very actively involved in human rights matters, in particular  focussing on the right to self-determination, women’s rights and Indigenous rights.