Vira Nanivska is the Director of the International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS) in Kyiv, Ukraine, and is regarded in her field as an active promoter of policy development, economic research and administrative reform throughout Central and Eastern Europe. She completed her Ph.D. research at Institute of Oriental Studies of USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, on the process of modernization in Japan. Since 1992, she has been in Kyiv permanently and has played an active role on many fronts in Ukraine’s transition towards a market economy. She worked as Program Development Officer at the World Bank in Ukraine for five years.