Fellows

Pragati Singh has over nine years of experience in the fields of public health, gender, and sexual and reproductive rights. She earned a MBBS degree from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi University, in 2012, followed by a diploma in organizational leadership from Swedish Institute, Stockholm, in 2018. For her recent project with The Girl Effect, she developed a series of educational videos on sexual and reproductive health & rights for young Indian girls. As Learning & Training Fellow with Girl Up, Pragati’s responsibilities include identification, adaptation, and development of learning and advocacy resources on sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice (SRHRJ) for Girl Up’s youth members, as well as the building out of Girl Up’s learning and advocacy resources and engagement strategy for LGBTQI+ youth. Pragati also supports a variety of other work that the Girl Up team does, such as outreach to increase and measure the impact of Girl Up’s curriculum, “Let’s Talk About Gender-based Violence: Building Awareness and Solidarity.” Her roles have involved advocating for policy change, liaison and partnership building, data interpretation, capacity building, and program management. Pragati has gained hands-on skills in project management, grant management, business development, conference organizing, partnership building, community building, and communications and marketing. She received a number of awards for her visionary leadership, and was recognized by the BBC as one of the world’s hundred most influential, inspiring, and innovative women in 2019.

Host Organization: Girl Up

Role at Host Organization: As the SRHRJ Global Strategy Fellow, Pragati will work closely with the Training & Learning Team at Girl Up to identify, adapt, and develop learning and advocacy resources on sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for Girl Up’s youth members. The Fellow will also build out Girl Up’s learning and advocacy resources and engagement strategy for LGBTQI+ youth and support ongoing outreach to increase and measure the impact of Girl Up’s curriculum. Additionally, the Fellow will support the development of Girl Up’s programming on mental health and wellness and support the team with planning for in-person engagement.

Quaifa Andaleeb has a strong passion for women empowerment. She has more than four years of experience of working with and in the Indian government departments/ organizations. She holds two master’s degrees in Gender and Development and Women’s Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (UK) and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (India), respectively. Quaifa worked in the UNV/ UNDP India and held the position of District Youth Officer under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. She was the district nodal head for the implementation of all the programs as per the Ministry’s approved Annual Action Plan. She had also worked closely with two of the Bihar government’s programs namely, the Integrated Child Development Scheme and the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotional Society. She assessed the training needs of the ‘barefoot’ functionaries of these programs and developed self-explanatory training modules and capsules for them. Previously, she has worked as a Young Professional at the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (Rural Development Department, Government of Maharashtra) where she was entrusted with the end-to-end management and implementation of a state level pilot project on mobilization and institution building of community resource persons. She has also contributed in drafting the organization’s policy for its community-based trainers. Quaifa is a feminist and aspires to achieve gender equity and human well-being in this resource constrained world. Her professional experiences have equipped her with a strong skill set in project management, implementation, coordination, and communication.

Host Organization: SAP

Role at Host Organization: AT SAP, Quaifa will serve as a Code Unnati Fellow: Quaifa will support and coordinate with stakeholders involved in the initiative, coordinate the employee engagement opportunities for Code Unnati (digital literacy/skilling) Document Communications and Report writing for initiatives

Radhika Ralhan is a sociologist, a sustainable systems thinking professional, and an impact strategist. As a University Gold Medalist, she enhanced her academic erudition in diverse professional contexts. These contexts include extending strategic advisory at leadership levels, executing critical sustainability programs in diverse themes, such as renewable energy, menstrual hygiene, and health, and devising policy research projects on SDGs. She also spearheaded teams by working primarily on social impact analysis and global and national-level positioning of programs. She has been instrumental in curating innovative partnerships platforms such as CSR Collaboration Hub and SDGs Drivers Forum among private sector, government institutions, and NGOs with set-focused outcomes. She has enhanced her professional dynamism by working with leading multi-faceted organizations, such as IIT Delhi, United Nations Global Compact, Development Alternatives, CAF, and Dr. Reddy’s sustainability unit. At the policy front, in her independent capacity, the Bureau of Indian Standards, Government of India appointed her to formulate the first of its kind CSR Standards as a key drafting expert. She has presented her research work and perspectives at global platforms in Milan, Istanbul, and Copenhagen and has taught at prominent universities such as IHM, Pusa, and Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. For Radhika, innovation, unconventional thinking, working on unexplored avenues, and leveraging social outcomes are key drivers in the sustainability discourse.

Host Organization: Collaborating for Resilience

Role at Collaborating for ResilienceAt Collaborating for Resilience, Radhika will serve as the Program Management Fellow: promoting citizen engagement in policy reform and implementation, managing partner collaborations, undertaking action research in one or more program areas, and contributing to program development, marketing, and communications initiatives.

Saket Mani is an entrepreneur, global youth activist, community mobilizer and a strategist focusing on advocacy, partnership, grassroots program implementation & communications. He is focused on driving advocacy and policy on sustainable development, skill development, education, youth & human rights, climate change, and gender justice. A natural leader and globally recognized activist, he is powerfully equipped with superior communication and interpersonal skills and has a refined understanding of multicultural & multilingual partnerships to maximize strategic benefit. Mindful of the need for inclusive advocacy, Saket’s outreach engages change makers from rural, semi-urban, and urban areas. A committed champion for gender rights, Saket currently serves as the UN Women’s Youth Planet 50/50 Champion for Gender Equality. Highlighting the power of volunteerism, he mobilized 200,000+ people to commit and pledge support for ‘HeForShe’, the UN Women’s Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality. Saket is the founding member of 1M1B (1 Million for 1 Billion) Foundation, which is a 501c3 leadership, entrepreneurship and an innovation initiative aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to his work on gender rights, he served as the Global Youth Advocate for the UN Secretary General’s My World 2015 Global Citizen Survey, which crowdsourced approx. 7 million young people to voice their perspectives and concerns regarding the development of the SDGs. Additionally, he is the founder of the ‘Youth Love Development’ Facebook group (25,000+ Members) and is a wannabe tech enthusiast, a feminist, voracious reader, gastronome, and cultural explorer.

Host Organization: American India Foundation

Role at American India Foundation At the American India Foundation (AIF), Saket will support the CEO and strategically assess progress, evaluate opportunities and determine fit within the organization’s priorities. He will create and update organizational dashboards and annual business calendars to review KPI’s and manage a variety of long term projects.

Sana is a Water and Sanitation Expert and has 5 years of experience in the implementation of sanitation projects and programs. She has earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Calcutta in India and a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Nalanda International University, India. While working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Government of India as a WASH ( Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) and Knowledge Management Specialist for Swachh Bharat Mission(Urban), Clean India Mission, she helped draft national-level policies and guidelines, and aided capacity building of government officials in order to improve solid waste management and sanitation practices in 4200+ urban local bodies of India. In her previous assignment, Sana worked with Tata Trusts to advance the sanitation practices of the rural community in Bihar and promote the use of toilets along with the help of other development partners like UNICEF and the World Bank. Sana has also worked as a climate change volunteer on the issue of displacement of migrants due to climate change. Through these experiences, she developed excellent leadership qualities, strategic thinking skills, program management experience, stakeholder management, and implementation skills. Sana enjoys focusing on the topics of water, sanitation, hygiene, and solid waste management and has a passion for gender mainstreaming.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: At American Red Cross, Sana will be serving as the Knowledge Management & Learning Fellow. Sana will be sitting with the Quality, Data and Learning team at ISD/ARC Headquarters and will be responsible for supporting the Knowledge Management and Learning efforts of the department. She will help facilitate access to, utilization of, and learning from existing data, evidence, and knowledge generated from past operations both within the American Red Cross and with the RCRC Movement Partners

Vithika is a human rights professional, with over a decade of experience of working on human trafficking, modern day slavery, sexual rights and gender rights. She is the Co-founder and Head of Love Matters India. She manages strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships and envisions sustainable impact of the program. Internationally recognized as an expert on survivor care and protection services, Vithika was awarded as one of the Top 99 under 33 Young Foreign Policy Leaders in the world by Diplomatic Courier and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy in the USA in 2012, and in 2016, she was recognized for being one of the top 120 under 40 next generation of Family Planning Leaders in the world.

Host Organization: Free the Slaves