Dr. Helena Pérez Niño, Assistant Professor, ISS Erasmus University Rotterdam, conducts research on the political economy of development with special emphasis on the social organisation of production in agriculture and the social impact of globalised agricultural markets. Past research has traced the agrarian reconstruction of the war-ravaged Mozambique-Malawi borderland and state and private-led ideas of post conflict agrarian restructuring (namely, the expansion of contract farming). Her current research examines how agricultural intensification impacts gender power relations and the drivers of underwhelming or frustrated trajectories productive upgrade. Dr. Nino has worked for UNICEF and UNHCR; has been a visiting fellow at IESE (Maputo) and PLAAS (Cape Town) and her research has been supported by grants from ESRC (UK), the British Academy and the LIDC (UK). Prior to joining the ISS she was a lecturer at SOAS University of London and at the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Agrarian Change and is a co-founder of the Contract Farming Initiative research network (www.contractfarminginitiative.org).