Dr. Norainie Ahmad

Dr. Norainie Ahmad specialises in policy research and analysis, focusing on governance, demographic change, gender and women’s studies, and public sector development in Southeast Asia. Her work combines academic scholarship with applied insights, drawing on qualitative approaches to inform context-sensitive and evidence-based policymaking. She serves as the National Consultant and Gender Expert on regional policy initiatives, including the Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (E-READI) project on women’s political participation and leadership in Brunei. She is also involved in public sector training and capacity building, particularly in the areas of policy analysis, policy design, governance, and policy implementation. She is a member of the Women in Public Policy International Network (WIPP)/IPPA, the Asian Population Association, the Asian Association of Women’s Studies, an UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab Expert, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Advanced Research, UBD.  

Norainie holds an MSc in Public Policy and Administration from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and pursued doctoral studies at the University of Oxford's Department of Sociology, where she was affiliated with the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and St. Cross College. Her dissertation deals with how policies or policy gaps shape how individuals and households make decisions related to the family.

Her recent publications include "Demography of Brunei", and "Women’s Empowerment in Brunei Darussalam" in the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei and "The Socioeconomic Context of Fertility Decline and Preference in Brunei” in Family Demography in Asia: A Comparative Analysis of Fertility Preferences, Edward Elgar, 2018. She is currently co-editing a book on Women, Agency and The State in Contemporary Brunei, expected to be published in 2025.