Fellows

A development professional with more than ten years of experience of working with public and private sector stakeholders particularly in the domain of public-private partnerships, skills development, counseling & placements, technological sophistication, labour market survey, institutional capacity building, and knowledge management for socio-economic development. Currently, working with Louis Berger on USAID Punjab Youth Workforce Development Project as a Lead for Placements, Partnerships, and Institutional Capacity Building. Ansa is providing strategic, technical & policy support, and advice on formulation and execution of capacity development initiatives for empowering vulnerable and marginalized youth; strengthening partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders at all administrative government tiers with an aim of improving accessibility, equity, and relevance of youth development services for sustainable socio-economic development. Previously, worked with GiZ as PPP Advisor and facilitated the Government and public-sector institutions in bridging the disconnect with private sector for demand-driven workforce development. Prior to that, served at Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industries and Production, Government of Pakistan (GoP), for about eight years in multiple capacities, starting from a trainee metamorphosed into a Manager leading a team of four professionals. The sphere of responsibilities included orchestrating proposals and papers for the Government, multi-funding agencies, creating partnerships with bilateral/multilateral groups, corporate sector, and government bodies along with executing image building initiatives. Her educational pursuits involved an MPA from University of Punjab, Pakistan and a BBIT from Lahore College for Women University. The blend of classroom and on-job learning significantly inculcated leadership, cross-functional team work, effective communication skills, problem resolution, and resilience into her personality. She always has a balanced approach towards life, relishes her work as a development professional, and eager to mark herself as social entrepreneur contributing productively towards socio-economic melioration of local communities.

Host Organization: United Way Bay Area

Role of Host Organization: Ansa will enhance UWBA’s business partnerships work through research, data analysis and the creation of a strategic plan. She will work with the Equity Team to assess current activities of the business partnerships team as well as conduct research on best practices across the nation, including feasibility of expansion in the Bay Area and analyze our data.

Aziz Ullah has four year of experience in learning and development, entrepreneurship, business development and public speaking; working with non-profit and for profit both in private and public sector. He earned an MBA from National University of Modern Languages Pakistan, and B.Sc Civil Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Pakistan. He is a certified trainer from School of Leadership Pakistan and has earned multiple
national and international certifications. As an Acumen fellow Pakistan, he is working on creating sustainable solutions to enable the graduates from unprivileged areas receive training, improve their entrepreneurial and employability skills to be socially and economically stable and live a better life. Aziz has for four years of experience as a Co-Founder and CEO for the Center for Awareness Training and Development Pakistan, which is a training and management consultancy working with public and private sector to develop market needs based skills in individuals and employees, promote entrepreneurship and build capacity of startups and entrepreneurs, and fill the skill gap between job sector and academia. As a trainer, learning and development profession, he helps people and organizations reach their goals and perform with greater impact. Aziz Ullah facilitates learning programs nationally and internationally for corporate, nonprofits, academia and youth to enrich their leadership values, employee efficiency, team performance and creativity and entrepreneurship skills. He has designed and delivered
professional training modules & courses for 30 + local, national and international organizations during the past four years and has facilitated more than two hundreds learning programs, workshops and training conferences. Aziz has akeen interest is working with non-profit and for profit sector on promoting and developing entrepreneurial ecosystem, capacity building of graduates, startups, entrepreneurs and employees to help organization and individual be more effective, more efficient and more productive in creating greater impact with the work they do.

Host Organization: The Resolution Project

Role at Host Organization: Aziz will learn about and map Resolution’s 100 existing social entrepreneurship ecosystem partners (known as Pathway Partners) and plan a new activation framework for Pathway Partners through a public-facing online platform.

Ehsan is a sustainability enthusiast with a masters in Sustainability (Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management) from the University of Nottingham, UK. He holds a Bachelors in Environmental Sciences from Pakistan and has completed an exchange semester at SUNY Plattsburgh USA with mention on the Dean’s list. Ehsan shoots for the stars and is constantly thinking about new methods to generate effective engagement opportunities for the 1.8 billion global youth, rethinking the global Agenda 2030 of ‘leaving no one behind’. He has served as a youth member on UNDP’s panel for development of National Human Development Report 2016 in Pakistan and has been involved in over six social development projects in Pakistan in different capacities during his work at NUR Foundation for 3 years. He currently works as Technical Services Manager at Punjab Public Health Agency, Pakistan. He is also the module convenor for developing minimum viable product course at Startup School, MIT Enterprise Forum, Pakistan. Ehsan has also co-founded a social enterprise called, the Green Box; it is a youth led global think tank aiming to contribute towards creating routine attitudes, values and actions for sustainable development. The world is committed to achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. Through Green Box, he wants to ensure that people acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, global citizenship, and appreciation of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. He plans to do this all in a very unconventional manner.

Host Organization: International Youth Foundation

Role at Host Organization: Ehsan will work collaboratively with YouthActionNet team to support research and learning content development as well as the co-design of a new global initiative. He will gain a deeper understanding of the global social entrepreneurship, youth-led civil society, and youth advocacy sectors in addition to supporting a new global initiative focused on engaging the next generation of young people in demanding and delivering Sustainable Development Goals.

Ishaq has over five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned two Master’s of Science degrees in Project Management and Applied Statistics from the University of Management and Technology in Pakistan. He earned a Rector’s Award for scoring four out of four GPA during his MS in Applied Statistics. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Statistics from Government College University in Lahore, Pakistan with a Gold Medal for securing first position in the class. While working as a Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst with Chemonics International Inc. in Pakistan under the USAID-funded Punjab Enabling Environment Project for more than two years, he worked to measure the impact of policy interventions made for the economic growth in the Agribusiness sector of Punjab. Ishaq has also worked with USAID funded Pakistan Firms Project implemented by Chemonics International Inc. as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for more than two years that focused on accelerating sales and creating jobs in the targeted value chains of Agriculture and Industry sectors. Through these experiences, he developed strong monitoring and evaluation, project management and data analysis skills. Ishaq enjoys focusing on the areas of economic growth, women empowerment and gender equality, and has a strong passion for human and institutional capacity development initiatives.

Host Organization: SEED SPOT

Role at Host Organization: Ishaq will help design, collect, and track SEED SPOT measuring and evaluation work enabling more accurate and up to date data. Working with High Schools and SEED SPOT Communities across the country, he will help develop new modules and curriculum for Schools and Communities programs.