THE CGAP TEAM
driven, powered & inspired by volunteers
CGAP volunteers are spread all across the world
CGAP's Initiatives
Our Work
Meet The Team
Sugandha
Co-Founder, Director, Chief Editor
Sugandha has a background in gender, human rights law and policy. She holds two MA degrees; MA in Women’s Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and MA in Human Right Law from School of Oriental and African studies, London. She has worked with non-profits, philanthropy and government departments, and is an active member of women and policy initiatives in India.
Akhil Neelam
Co-Founder
Akhil is a public policy practitioner and a gender rights advocate, working towards making politics gender-equal. Previously, he has worked with the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where he strategised policy communications and planned the implementation of various public education initiatives and contributed towards implementing systemic changes for better implementation. He is also a Young India Fellow from Ashoka University.
Riya Hira
Lead, Projects
Riya is a social impact strategist with a background in learning design, gender justice, and communications. She builds programmes and communications strategies across themes of gender justice, civic participation, and learning & systems change. She co-founded Project Statecraft, a youth-led policy and civic education initiative, and has led programmes backed by UNDP and the Citi Foundation focused on SDG education and 21st-century skills across India. She also brings experience in private sector strategy and communications, currently consulting for a healthcare publishing organisation on brand positioning and digital growth.
Meet Our Advisors
Priti Srivastava
Priti has over 3 decades of experience in policy, strategy and corporate affairs. She is currently Mentor, Advocacy at Reliance Industries Ltd. She is a philanthropist and has recently launched DayaRani, a mental and social wellness initiative.
Srividya Reddy
Srividya is the Chairperson of CII-IWN (Indian Women Network) Telangana. She is Vice-Chair of various G. Pulla Reddy Educational Institutes, including GNITS (G Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science for Women) in Hyderabad.
Technical Advisory Unit (TAU)
Sakshi Hallan
Member, TAU
Sakshi is a Policy Manager at J-PAL Africa, where she focuses on advancing evidence-based policymaking efforts in the education sector. Prior to joining J-PAL, she worked as an Economist in the Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda through the ODI Fellowship, contributing to strategic planning, program design, and stakeholder engagement. Previously, she has also worked in development research and policy analysis in social protection, education, financial inclusion, and agriculture sectors with organizations including World Bank, Inclusion Economics India Centre, and PAL Network.
Devanik Saha
Member, TAU
Devanik is a Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Greenwich. He has a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. His doctoral thesis explores men's involvement in antenatal care in an informal settlement of Delhi. His areas of interest are gender, men and masculinities, migration, maternal reproductive health, and Indian politics. He is also a recipient of the Global Talent Visa by the UK government, wherein he has been endorsed as an exceptional talent in the field of Global Health and Development.
He can be contacted on Twitter
Poonam Kakoti Borah
Sensitivity Reader
Poonam Kakoti Borah is Assistant Professor at Department of Women's Studies, Gauhati University. She completed her M. Phil and Ph.D from Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her areas of interest include Political Theory, Feminist Theory, Gender and Education and Gender and Governance. Before joining Gauhati University, she taught at Indraprastha College for Women, Miranda House and St. Stephen’s College in University of Delhi.
She has also published articles in journals and edited books by reputed publishers like Oxford University Press and Routledge. She is currently also a member of the North East Regional Committee under the Indian Association of Women's Studies.