Fernanda Balata
Associate fellow
Fernanda Balata is a political economist, writer and associate fellow at the New Economics Foundation. Her work focuses on a central challenge in contemporary political economy: why economic governance systems repeatedly fail to address the structural conditions that allow wealth and power to concentrate, undermining, democratic institutions, equitable access to resources, epistemic diversity, and climate and ecological stability.
She is particularly interested in how alternative economic ideas and practices – often emerging from contexts of economic marginalisation – can gain institutional traction at local and national levels and reshape global economic norms.
Between 2013 and 2025, Fernanda held senior roles at NEF, where she led and helped shape several flagship programmes, including the Extreme Wealth Line Initiative, Green New Deal and Just Transition work, the Blue New Deal for coastal communities, and the Centre for Coastal Economies. She has contributed to advisory processes and policy development in the UK, and played a central role in NEF’s international work, engaging with multilateral institutions, governments, and civil society actors across both the Global South and Global North.
Her work combines participatory research, policy evaluation, and political-economy analysis to support institutional reform and democratic repair. Fernanda regularly writes and speaks on issues of inequality, power, and economic justice.
