Ruta Aidis

Dr. Ruta Aidis is a leading expert on SME, gender and economic development. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching, researching, consulting and publishing in the area of entrepreneurship, SMEs, gender, women’s economic empowerment, innovation, institutional development and public policy. Dr. Aidis has conducted multiple consultancies and evaluations for USAID and other donor agencies. In 2019, she led USAID’s first global gender analysis of the recycling and waste management sector piloting both the Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality (WE3) toolkit and recommendations for Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiatives. Dr. Aidis is also a Senior Fellow at George Mason University. As a data-driven analyst with strong quantitative and qualitative data skills, she has led the development of ground-breaking gendered indices, such as the Gender-Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (Gender GEDI) and the Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard (GWEL) focused on identifying gendered impediments using country comparative data.