CV

Profession: Strategy Development and Humanitarian Consultant


Career Summary:

A programme strategy and organisational development expert with twenty-five years of senior management and consulting experience in international development and humanitarian organisations in Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. He specialises in creation, implementation and evaluation of programme and management system frameworks for public benefit organisations to enhance accountability to stakeholders and deliver business results. Previously, he worked as Oxfam’s (GB) Country Director in Iraq and later as Oxfam’s Deputy Director for Asia, Middle East & former Soviet Union. Abhijit is a certified Auditor for HAP 2007 Standards for Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management.

Professional membership:

Member, UK Evaluation Society
Certified Auditor for HAP2007 standards (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International Standards).
Observer member, ALNAP, London.
Member of the Board of International Childcare Trust, UK, and chairman of Programme Development Committee.


Key Skills & Core Focus:

Programme Reviews, Evaluation and Project Cycle Management: Participatory approaches to project design and appraisal, use of result-based management frameworks in project planning, monitoring and implementation, impact evaluation and real-time evaluations of complex development, disaster management and relief programmes using various international standards and methodologies (DAC/OECD criteria, RCRC code, UNEG, HAP2007 standard, SPHERE, etc) and development of outcome indicators for complex humanitarian programmes.

Organisational Development & Capacity Building for Humanitarian Progrqammes: Context-specific participatory methods, organisational assessments, development of strategic direction for organisation’s work, diagnosis, problem solving, training and facilitation in change management and related areas.


Relevant Assignments undertaken:

Programme Designs, Reviews and Evaluations:

09-11/2007: UNICEF, New York Study of Policy Implications for UNICEF’s global programme arising out of Tsunami lessons and in the context of Humanitarian Reforms.
05-06/2007: Danish Refugee Council/ ECHO Evaluation of European Commission and Irish Aid (DCI) funded livelihoods and recovery programme in Chechnya.
01-03/2007: ICRC Team Leader for evaluation of ICRC’s response to Lebanon crisis of 2006.
03-04/2007: CARE Australia Team Leader, Evaluation of CARE’s Tsunami response on shelter and livelihoods in Eastern Sri Lanka.
08-09/2006: IFRC Strategic Review of Africa Plan of Action covering disaster risk reduction, food security, HIV/AIDS and inter-agency coordination and development of monitoring indicators for capacity building of National Red Cross Societies in the Africa continent.
06-07/2006: ICRC Team leader for evaluation of economic security programme and its linkage protection issues in conflict areas of Ethiopia.
08-11/2005: IFRC Team leader for real-time evaluation of Red Cross’ Tsunami response (with about 28 donor National Red Cross Societies operating in Indonesia and Sri Lanka) in Asia and Kenya & Somalia – produced synthesis report covering all country reports.
11/2005-03/2006: IFRC Strategic Review of disaster preparedness and Risk Reduction work of South East Asia National Red Cross Societies and the IFRC’s role in the region, covering Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Timor Leste.
10-11/2005: Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Team Leader for Independent Real-Time Evaluation of DEC members’ Tsunami response in Sri Lanka, and co-author of the synthesis report.

05-07/2005: ECB Project Team Leader, multi-agency evaluation of tsunami response for Oxfam GB, CARE and World Vision in India and Sri Lanka
11-12/2004: ICRC Team leader, Evaluation of ICRC’s support to Sri Lanka Red Cross Society in Disaster/Conflict Preparedness and Response and development of impact indicators.

Humanitarian Programme Capacity Building and Organisational Development:

05-08/2007: Inter-Agency Working Group Reviewed existing accountability policies and developed Common Humanitarian Accountability Framework for IWG members (Oxfam, World Vision, CARE, CRS, IRC, IMC & Save the Children).
10-11/2006: CARE International Lessons Learning Review of CARE International’s humanitarian response to Lebanon war and Democratic Republic of Congo crises in 2006, and assessment of CARE’s overall emergency response capacity.
08-09/2006: IFRC Strategic Review of Africa Plan of Action covering disaster risk reduction, food security, HIV/AIDS and inter-agency coordination and developing outcome indicators for capacity building of National Red Cross Societies in the Africa continent.
04-05/2005:IFRC Reviewed management capacity, structure and system for disaster preparedness and emergency response for IFRC headquarters and developed recommendations for disaster management system.
2004: UNHCR, Geneva/Iraq: Capacity building programme for Ministry of Displacement and Migration, Government of Iraq: provided support on inter-agency coordination of capacity building support to the Ministry, and developed a joint strategy for organisational development of this newly set up Ministry to deal with IDPs and refugees.
2004: People In Aid, UK Developed Internationalisation Strategy to work through partner organisations for promotion of People In Aid Code internationally.


Work Experience:

From May 2002: Humanitarian and Strategy Development Consultant, UK:
Training and consulting work for international organisations on programme evaluations, organisational reviews and capacity building, with specialisation in disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response.

August 2000 – April 2002: Programme Director, The Resource Alliance, London:
The Resource Alliance is a non-profit organisation building management, communication and resource mobilisation capacity of civil society institutions throughout the world. Abhijit had the overall responsibility for planning, delivering, monitoring and impact assessment of the organisation’s global programme. Developed impact assessment methodology and indicators for Resource Alliance’s capacity-building programme for non-profit organisations.

March 1989- July 2000: Oxfam (Great Britain), Various Countries and Oxford:

January 1997 – July 200: Deputy Director Asia, Middle East/ North Africa & Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union: Managed the country offices in the region and led the regional teams towards developing strategically coherent programme which addressed new organisational priorities using rights-based framework for programme development.

July 1996-December 1996: Consultant for Oxfam Caribbean region, Kingston, Jamaica: As a consultant to Oxfam’s Caribbean regional programme, reviewed Oxfam’s regional programme on food security in English-speaking countries of the region, and facilitated development of regional strategy.

June 1995 – June 1996: Country Director, Iraq (based in Baghdad):

October 1991 – May 1995: Deputy Country Director, India: Was responsible for country strategy development, managing institutional funding relationships, programme evaluations and overall management of emergency response in collaboration with national and provincial governments.

March 1989– September 1991: Regional Representative for Eastern India, Calcutta:

September 1988 – February 1989: Evaluation Consultant, PLAN International, South Asia:
Evaluated two major partnerships programmes with focus on child sponsorship, education and vocational training in two provinces of India.

January 1986 – August 1988: Programme Officer, Aga Khan Foundation, India:

1982 – 1985: Programme Manager, a local NGO in India:




Languages:
English, Hindi & Bengali: Equally proficient in reading, writing and speaking. Urdu: Proficient in speaking
Educational Background:

1981: M. Sc Agricultural Economics from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
1979: B. Sc Agriculture, with specialisation in Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Kalyani, India.