[3][1] Through her field research and work on operations, policy analysis, and evaluation, Lele has assessed the impact of development assistance; including in China, India and Africa.
[4][2] She has been called “a leader in the world of economic development and a brilliant researcher" who "supports her theories with rigorous empirical analysis" based on rich data sets.
She worked on her book The Design of Rural Development: Lessons From Africa (1975) as a visiting professor at Cornell (1973–1974), returning to the World Bank in 1974 and remaining there until 1990.
A recurring theme of Lele's work has been her willingness to test the assumptions underlying public interventions against actual conditions and outcomes in the field.
She led complex evaluations leading to the rethinking of major global development programs such as the World Bank's Forest Strategy (2002) and CGIAR (2003).
In comparison, in countries like India, existing institutions were more stable and provided practical experience and support for the use of development funds.
[3][15][16] In this and in later work such as her comparisons of water-related policies in China and India,[17] Lele emphasizes international diversity, the need to understand local conditions and suit interventions to circumstances[4][18] Lele has also pointed out close links between agricultural sector performance and macroeconomic performance[19] and examined the roles that donors play in the successes and failures of development.
[20] As a Division Chief in the development research department, reorganized by Anne Osborn Krueger in the 1980s, Lele carried out a comparative study on aid to African agriculture.
[21] The MADIA (Managing Agricultural Development in Africa) discussion papers examine the effectiveness of liberalisation and privatisation attempts in agricultural marketing over 25 years by aid donors (the World Bank, USAID, UKODA, DANIDA, SIDA, France, Germany, and the EEC) in six African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Senegal).
Reports from forest-rich Brazil, Cameroon, and Indonesia and forest-poor China, Costa Rica, and India brought forward a range of perspectives.