Dr Nivedita Narain is a development professional with nearly 35 years of experience as an organization builder, researcher, teacher, and trainer. Her work is driven by a commitment to social equality and collaborative work across institutions: government, non-profits, academia, and business. She is the Chief Executive Officer at Charities Aid India India (CAF India). She has worked with PRADAN from 1987 to 2021, holding various leadership positions, apart from short stints at the World Bank and with community organizations in the US. Having made pioneering contributions to the establishment of India’s first SHGs, she has worked in the area of gender, livelihoods, organization development, and human resources management for non-profits, setting up development practice as an academic discipline, research, and advocacy. During her career, she has consulted with business organizations and partnered with Indian and international philanthropic foundations, non-profits, social enterprises, universities, and research institutes. Her research interests are gender, agriculture, food and water, sustainable development and the non-profit sector.
Nivedita has a Ph.D. in management from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, a Masters in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand, and a Masters in Development Policy from Cornell University.
She is currently adjunct faculty member at the SoPP at IIT Delhi. She has been adjunct faculty at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia; Erasmus Mundus Fellow at the Georg August Universitat Gottingen (GAUG); Atlantic Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School for Economics and Political Sciences; O’Brien Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University in Canada; and a Senior Fellow and Member of the Advisory Committee at Ambedkar University Delhi.