Rita Locatelli holds a PhD in International Cooperation from the UNESCO Chair of the University of Bergamo, Italy. Her research centres on education policies and governance, with a focus on the role of the State in regard to the changing dynamics of global education development and the involvement of non-state actors in education. She worked as a research assistant at the UNESCO Education Research and Foresight Unit during her PhD programme, when she contributed to the realisation of the UNESCO publication Rethinking Education: Towards a global common good?, and later in 2018 as a consultant for the Section of Partnerships, Cooperation and Research.