ABOUT CHANGE ALLIANCE

Change Alliance Private Limited (CAPL) is a social enterprise and technical support agency with its primary objective to implement projects, social impact advisory and consultancy services, and to promote and achieve inclusive development.

We work with organisations across not-for-profit, government and for-profit sectors. We have delivered innumerable projects for private sector, corporate foundations, government and not-for-profit organisations across a variety of thematic areas and geographic locations.

We have a footprint in majority of states in India through one or more of our interventions or assignments. Our portfolio comprises of programme design, management, implementation, impact evaluation, research, policy advisory, strategic consultancy, monitoring & evaluation and end-to-end management of sustainability and corporate social responsibility programmes.

Our Core Team

We are a multi- disciplinary team who believe that every human irrespective of his caste, colour, race or economic background deserves a life of equality, justice and dignity.

Chief Executive Officer

Anand Kumar Bolimera

Anand is the Chief Executive Officer at Change Alliance. In the past, he was heading the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme, one of the largest civil society programmes of Department for International Development (DFID) in India. He also worked as the Country Director of Christian Aid, UK India country programme.

He has over two decades of extensive experience in strategic planning, programme development & design, programme implementation & partnership management, multi-stakeholder engagement and impact assessment. He led several humanitarian response programmes, which includes relief, rehabilitation and resettlement. He has worked with bilateral aid institutions and civil society organisations on long term development programmes, emergency responses, pro-poor market and enterprise-based development initiatives.

He has been actively engaging with the private sector in promoting inclusive policies and diversity.

Interim Director, Development Advisory Services (DAS)

Dr. Archana Shukla Mukherjee

Dr Archana Shukla Mukherjee,  Interim Director, Development Advisory Services (DAS)

Archana is working with Change Alliance since 2015, in different roles and capacities right from managing India programmes, Business Development and Marketing department and business vertical Lead- Gender Diversity and Inclusion.  Before joining Change Alliance, she worked as Programme and Research head at the Centre for Alternative Dalit Media (CADAM) working on Dalits and Adivasi rights. She also worked in Partners in Change (PIC) as Programme and Research specialist engaging with private sector companies on the assessment of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.  She was Chief Operating Officer in Prakruthi – enabling Sustainability and worked on supply chain management and led South Asia Network for Sustainable and Responsible Business.

In Change Alliance she has led the Gender Equality Programme and safe and responsible migration with the support of leading apparel brands of UK and US and worked with more than 35 suppliers.  In recognition of women empowerment interventions, Change Alliance represented by Archana was awarded the “Sandvik India Gender Award (SIGA), 2019, under the Social Venture” category by Sandvik Asia Pvt Ltd, Swedish Chamber of Commerce, UN- Global Compact Network.  She is leading various projects on linking poor, marginalised and vulnerable communities with social protection schemes, promoting safe and responsible migration, better working conditions for women migrant workers, Business and Human Rights and climate change/resilience.

She has 15 years of experience working in the garment sector, mining, tea, coffee, sugarcane and cotton sector (sustainable and responsible business) and affirmative action programmes in the private sector. She is a trainer on Gender, Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace, CSR, career progression programmes and Business & Human Rights (BHR). She is a trainer for the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) on project design and implementation for private and public sector companies.  She is certified faculty under Faculty Development Programme in Entrepreneurship by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII). She is trained on sustainable value chains through practice and cohort based capacity building initiative of programmes like “Regenearth” on sustainable livelihoods and business models.

She has a doctoral degree in Social Anthropology from University of Delhi (“Women in local governance among Padhars- a Primitive Tribal Group of Gujarat”).

Head of Programmes

Semeda Steves

Semeda is one of Change Alliance’s focal points for gender empowerment, livelihoods and health projects.
She is a highly skilled trainer in the field of gender and organisational policy development.

Having spent more than 28 years in the development sector, Semeda has worked on the issues of domestic violence and women’s rights, the rights of slum dwellers, human trafficking and, HIV and AIDS.

Empowered with a vast experience in programme design and management, nurturing partnerships, grant management, accompaniment, monitoring and adhering to compliances and donor reporting, she is currently managing and heading programmes pan India.

Senior Manager - Responsible Business (ESG)

Indranil Seth

Indranil is a hardworking and passionate Environmental and Sustainability Consultant who works on ESG frameworks to assess an organization’s business practices. He has an experience of over 23 years in Consulting, Industrial and Research experience in several multi-national (USA, Kuwait, Oman and India) companies and academic organizations. Apart from the Environmental field he also works on Social and Governance issues related to ESG management. His areas of expertise and experience include Environment Protection, Sustainability Management, Storm Water Management, Solid Waste Management, Groundwater, Wastewater, Air Pollution, Renewal Energy, Energy Efficiency, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Governance. His experience also includes ESG frameworks and standards, Green Building, Carbon Credits, Risk Management, Climate Change Risks, Climate Change Impact Vulnerability, Climate Change Adaptability (GHG emissions reduction and achieving low carbon), Climate Change Resilience, SDGs and Rio Conventions.

Indranil Seth holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a second Master’s degree in Mining Engineering from University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA. He has a B.Tech. degree in Mining Engineering from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. He has a PE (Professional Engineering) license in Environmental Engineering from Ohio State Board, USA, LEED AP BD+C accreditation, and PMP (Project Management Professional) certification. Indranil also has expertise in environmental data analysis/ management and extensive modelling. He has extensively worked with GIS applications in the Environmental and Sustainability field. He has published many articles in the field of environment and sustainability.

Programme Officer, Humanitarian Response

Dr. Henna Hejazi

Dr Henna holds a medical degree and is a practicing humanitarian, disaster risk management and development professional leveraging 17 years of cutting edge experience of working with communities for principled humanitarian action and sustainable development including 12 years as functional head for effective development and management of humanitarian and development Projects/Programmes, advocacy with stakeholders and capacity building in Emergency Preparedness and Response. She has a cutting edge experience of managing multi sectoral projects on Relief, Response, Rehabilitation, Gender in DRR, Psychosocial Support in Emergencies, SRH in Emergencies, Health Emergency Preparedness for Response, Social Development, Natural Resource Management, Child Protection in Emergencies, Disability inclusive DRR (DiDRR) with organizations like Action Aid, International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA), UNICEF, HCLF, World Health Organisation (WHO), IPPF, Pragya, UNHCR & Sphere India. Having worked with a National Coalition of 150 humanitarian agencies (Sphere India) as thematic lead for Accountability to affected population, Knowledge Management Program, Collaborative Advocacy Vertical & Strategic Partnerships, she has ensured effective communication with communities, implementation of accountability principles and CHS standards in emergencies, build capacity of Govt and civil society in integrating Humanitarian Standards & has established & managed high value partnerships with Government, UN Agencies, NGO Networks, Corporates, Academia, Global Networks for ensuring implementation of national guidelines/standards, core humanitarian standards in disasters and complex emergencies. Focal point for NAEPR (Network Approach to Emergency Preparedness & Response) Program for COVID-19 response and recovery, Focal Point for Sector Committees/Groups including Health, & Protection Sector Committee, Cash Working Group, Inter Faith Humanitarian Alliance, she has been instrumental in bringing together sectoral experts/think tanks for charting out effective roadmaps for risk reduction and resilience. Dr Henna has also been responsible for pilot testing of Multi-sector Coordination on Emergency Preparedness & Response in six sectors across 10 States of India, in collaboration with National Institute of Disaster Management. She has been deployed in field for emergency assessments, evaluations, preparedness and emergency response coordination during & post disasters and has supported the URS process for response, Alert reports, SitReps and Joint Rapid Needs Assessment Reports. Dr Henna has facilitated coordination and established partnerships/agreements with global networks, conducted evaluations post emergencies, harmonised cash transfer program and has been one of the Core Team Member in the Study on State of Humanitarian Systems in India Report. She has advocated for protecting the rights of the most vulnerable women and children and integrated gender, women and child friendly services and policies in the assessment processes in the aftermath of disasters and emergencies in India.
Research Associate

Itishree Nayak

Itishree Nayak is a trained statistician and a demographer. She holds dual master’s degree in Statistics from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, and in Population Studies from International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. Prior to joining Change Alliance Pvt. Ltd.,

she served three reputed organisations, IIPS, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Centre of Excellence. She has contributed to the national report of Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) at IIPS and National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys at ICMR. Her strengths are analysis of large scale data using statistical software such as STATA, SPSS and also geographical software such as QGIS. She also has authored/co-authored four research articles in reputed international journals and had presented in international conference.

Programme Lead

Dr Deepak S Nikarthil Ph.D

Dr Deepak S Nikarthil Ph.D. is an inclusive and sustainable development expert and socioeconomic development professional with over 9 years of experience in India and Asia. He did his graduation from St. Stephan’s College, New Delhi and master’s from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He also holds a Ph.D. in Health Governance from Centre for Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

In his last role, Deepak worked as Senior Program Coordinator with Cividep India in Bangalore, where he managed the Multi Actor Partnership Programme for Gender and Health. He undertook research on Health among women garment workers in export-oriented garment industry and creation of guidelines for health vulnerabilities in the garment factories in Bangalore. His prior role included, working as Inclusive Development Programme Lead in Swasti Health Catalysts in Bangalore. In this role, he worked closely with USAID India Health Office, for implementation of inclusion in their health programmes in the country. He worked with Neilsen India Pvt. Ltd. as a consultant/technical expert for NACO project on high-risk population in Uttarakhand.

In his another significant role, Deepak worked with Swadhikar-NCDHR as programme and Research Manager for International Advocacy. He has assisted in creation of Global Forum on Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD) a global coalition of caste and caste like communities around the world. He was the first coordinator for the coalition. He was instrumental in this group to be recognized as one of the stakeholder groups within Maor Group and other Stakeholders (MGoS) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) both in Asia and Globally.

Our Consultants

Consultant

Avinav Kumar

Avinav is a seasoned development professional with extensive experience of working in the social sector for past 16 years on multiple issues concerning the marginalised and socially excluded communities. He brings a strong understanding and work experience of integrated development issues and a multi sectoral exposure in his professional journey.

He has been associated in implementation and management of large – scale development programmes right from grassroots to international NGOs in multiple states. During his association with Change Alliance, Avinav has been associated with the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme, an initiative of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), where he held multiple responsibilities.

As Head of Programmes for PACS he led the designing of programme interventions and strategic campaigns for the seven states of PACS and managed their effective implementation with 225 Civil Society Organization partners and other stakeholders. Avinav also conceptualized and led the knowledge management portfolio of the PACS programme, synthesizing learning and experiences from the seven years of the programme.

He holds a post-graduate qualification in Forest Management from India Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal and presently works with Change Alliance as Head of Programmes, based in Bhopal.

Consultant

Swati Kundra

Swati works as a consultant with Change Alliance.

She is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years of experience in the finance domain, in a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional and multi-sectorial environment.

In the initial 7 years of her career, she had worked with for-profit corporates. Later, she headed the finance of the PACS – DFID programme.

Swati’s key strengths are grant management, legal compliances, risk management, devising policies and procedures for large scale grant programmes and ensuring their implementation and strategic management of finance to achieve best value for money

Vision

Changing lives through inclusive growth and sustainable development for a better tomorrow.

Mission

  • We provide consultancy for efficient and high-impact sustainable development programmes delivered with professionalism, innovation and ability to tackle complex challenges in a fast-moving development landscape.
  • We offer a unique combination of proven track-record, breadth of expertise and extensive reach to impact the gap between policy and practice – we can bridge the divide between clients and the diverse stakeholders through our longstanding networks and reach.
  • We have experience of end-to-end design and execution of projects and have the relationships, experience and technical capacities of managing a range of thematic projects across geographic locations.

Our Values

Quality and professionalism.

We provide high quality professional services and technical support to our clients. This, in turn, we believe will help bridge the gap and bring measurable impact on communities and people’s lives.

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Collaboration and partnership

We work in a spirit of collaboration and partnership with organisations towards achieving a common purpose and goal.

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Accountability and impact

We believe in transparent and accountable development and the principle of value for money.

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Learning and sharing

We believe in mutual sharing of knowledge and best practices to help bring change.

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Honesty and respect

We place honesty and respect for others at the heart of what we do – the people and communities we reach through programmes, partner organisations and our clients.

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Innovation and scale

We believe in innovative and replicable approaches for driving us towards inclusive development at scale.

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Equity and inclusion

We seek solutions to poverty issues and to change lives through inclusive and equitable development.

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